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COPYl^IClIT DEPOSIT. 



EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

OR THE CULTURE OF 
CHARACTER 



A BOOK FOR TEACHERS' READING CIRCLES 
NORMAL CLASSES, AND INDIVIDUAL TEACHERS 



BY 



L. H. JONES, A.M. 

PRESIDENT MICHIGAN STATE NORMAL COLLEGE, AUTHOR OF THE 

JONES READERS, AND FORMERLY SUPERINTENDENT OF 

SCHOOLS IN INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 

AND CLEVELAND, OHIO 



GINN AND COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 



COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY L. H. JONES 

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

811.3 



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GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



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FOREWORD 

Perhaps no sane person ever lived to be fifty 
years of age without wishing at least once that he 
could live his life over again, bringing back to his 
youth the experience of his maturity. Realizing 
that this is impossible for himself, he earnestly de- 
sires that his children, and, if his sympathies are 
broad, other young people, shall become wise ere 
it is too late to profit by their wisdom. But in his 
anxiety for the young he frequently mistakes knowl- 
edge for wisdom', and in his theory of education he 
is liable to leave out of account that growth or 
development of the soul which alone makes a 
person capable of using aright his treasures of 
acquired learning. This little book is devoted to 
a discussion of the best ways of attaining sound 
character through the process of acquiring an edu- 
cation under the discipline of the school and other 

institutions of civilization. 

L. H. JONES 
Ypsilanti, Michigan 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. THE POINT OF VIEW i 

II. SELF-ACTIVITY 33 

III. SELF-REVELATION 84 

IV. SELF-DIRECTION 163 

V. SELF-REALIZATION 178 



EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

CHAPTER I 

THE POINT OF VIEW 

With so large a theme as education, no book of 
modest size can treat more than a small part of the 
subject. The point of view chosen will determine 
the range and character of the details. Much will 
be omitted, not because it is untrue or even unim- 
portant, but because it is irrelevant. Other things 
may be included, not because they are the most im- 
portant that can be said, but because they are neces- 
sary to the proper unfolding of the line of thought 
chosen. This book is frankly one-sided, — devoted 
to the discussion of one important phase of educa- 
tion, namely growth^ as distinguished from other 
aspects of the same subject. The idea of growth is, 
however, so fundamental in all education that a dis- 
cussion of this phase leads inevitably to a considera- 
tion of the other aspects as well ; so that this point 
of view, while confessedly partial, is after all a cen- 
tral one. Whatever of symmetry may be found in 
the present work, therefore, is due rather to this 
fundamental character of growth as an element in 



2 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the process of education than to any intention on 
the part of the author toward full or balanced 
treatment. 

This fundamental idea of growth is not so simple 
as it might at first seem. Its relations are numerous 
and important, and its implications varied and inclu- 
sive. It is the function of this chapter to explain 
and illustrate the nature of this idea and some of 
its most important implications, to the end that the 
remaining chapters may be read in the light thus 
shed upon them. 

Growth can take place only in an individual some- 
thing which can by its own power react on some- 
thing else so as to get benefit out of such contact, 
thus producing within itself certain changes lead- 
ing toward perfection. There is, therefore, in every 
actual case of true growth these three essentials : a 
something capable of these worthy changes in its 
own nature, certain processes comparable to nutri- 
tion and exercise, and a noticeable change for the 
better in the thing receiving the nutrition and taking 
the exercise. The best growth implies also some 
care in the arrangement by which the environment 
may be made to call out the proper reactions in the 
growing agent, — that is, cultivation or culture. 

This general statement of the law shows its appli- 
cability alike to material and spiritual existences, 
being as true of the human soul as of the human 



THE POINT OF VIEW 3 

body, though the processes are different in the two 
cases, and nutrition fit for the soul may be quite a 
different thing from that which will serve a like 
purpose for the body. The author believes that 
each human mind (soul, spirit) is an entity, or some- 
thing capable of such reactions upon other things 
in the universe as to gain both helpful exercise and 
wholesome nutrition. The problem of intentional or 
directed education is largely a problem of directing 
these reactions so that the exercise may become as 
helpful, and the nutrition as wholesome and effective 
as possible, in bringing the immortal, potential spirit 
into all the perfection implied in its type. The body 
of this book will be devoted to a discussion of this 
problem. 

It will readily be seen that much of the language 
used in these preliminary pages is figurative; for 
instance, the expression " within itself " is not in all 
cases used in a spatial sense ; nor is " nutrition " 
used in a material sense. Accurate studies in psy- 
chology are so recent that language has not yet 
adapted itself to the simple and direct expression 
of many of the most important discoveries of this 
science of the human being. Close attention to the 
context will doubtless, in all these cases, make plain 
the meaning intended. 

The author writes out of an experience of more 
than forty years of teaching and supervision of 



4 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

schools ; and it is the result of this extensive experi- 
ence in actual school work that he has wrought into 
these pages, rather than a logical analysis of the 
theme from the standpoint of the abstract student. 
However, the results of a somewhat wide profes- 
sional reading have been used in the interpretation 
of the theme. 

The point of view is further made clear by the 
explanation of certain beliefs of the author, which 
have become so well established as to direct and 
control his thinking and his interpretation of facts. 
Fundamental among these is the belief that the 
human being whose education is discussed in these 
pages is, in its essence, a spiritual being, that is, 
a being whose essential nature is expressed by its 
thinking, feeling, and willing ; and that its material 
body is merely a necessary condition to existence 
in this world of matter. The body is the instrument 
of the mind or soul, and as such is worthy of all the 
attention that it is likely to receive in any system 
of education. Its development and training are of 
the utmost importance so long as its subordinate 
position as a useful instrument to the spirit is 
recognized. But the real education discussed in this 
book is the education of the spirit, often carried 
out, it is true, through the right use of the bodily 
organs, by which alone one spirit has definite means 
of communication with other spirits or persons. 



THE POINT OF VIEW 5 

There is Implied underneath this view the behef in 
the immortality of the individual human soul, since 
it is everywhere considered as enduring and ac- 
countable ; while the body is treated as a necessary 
condition of the performance of human functions 
and therefore as an actual part of the human being. 

There is here no intention to enter upon a theo- 
logical discussion, but rather to make plain the psy- 
chological principle which is an important inter- 
preting idea for the succeeding chapters of this work. 
Nor is there the least disposition on the part of the 
author to dispute with the physiological psycholo- 
gists whose recent discoveries make up the most 
brilliant and helpful chapter of educational psy- 
chology of the last quarter of a century. The scien- 
tific study of the body, and especially of the nervous 
system in relation to mind action, cannot be too 
highly commended ; nor do I see any reason to 
quarrel with the results of such scientific study as 
they are given us direct from the psychological 
laboratory. It is only when physiology is called 
psychology, or conditions are called causes, that the 
psychologist has a right to protest. 

The writer believes that there is a wide difference 
between the cause of mental action and the mere 
occasion or condition of such action ; and that while 
conditions or occasions, or even motives, may come 
to the spirit through the body, the real power to 



6 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

begin, direct, and control such action is lodged with 
the soul and not in the body. Numerous illustra- 
tions of this difference will occur in the succeeding 
chapters. It will therefore be seen that the author 
believes in the essential freedom of the human will 
to a degree at least which develops the idea of 
accountability in the human being as his right edu- 
cation goes forward. The whole structure of modern 
education, as developed in the later chapters, is 
based on this belief. Any being not accountable — 
not responsible — is not capable of moral develop- 
ment or growth. Accountability or responsibility is 
inconceivable without a degree of freedom in the 
choice of one's course in life. Nor does this view 
conflict at all with the practical limitations which 
one constantly sees placed upon human conduct by 
heredity and environment. Freedom of the will as 
used here does not imply the ability to overcome 
obstacles of heredity or environment at once or in 
any particular instance, but rather the power to 
retain a right attitude of the mind and thus achieve 
a spiritual result similar to that of victory over 
external forces. The moral integrity of a person is 
often maintained under appearances that would in- 
dicate the opposite to a superficial observer. The 
power of the mind to develop its selfhood, to main- 
tain its integrity, and to renovate itself through ideals 
and motives and the spiritual activities to which 



THE POINT OF VIEW 7 

they lead, is the divinest capacity of the human 
being. The power of one person to enter vicari- 
ously into another's life, through the implanting of 
ideals and motives, is a truth that lies close to the 
heart of the profession of teaching, giving to educa- 
tional work its highest inspiration. The possibility 
of doing this without disturbing the selfhood of the 
pupil is due to the fact of essential freedom as here 
described. While many teachers semiconsciously 
appreciate these conditions and partly apply these 
principles in teaching, it is left to those who clearly 
and philosophically understand them to apply them 
most fully, and thus to set up standards which 
others without this clear view semiconsciously imi- 
tate. There would be no high standard to imitate, 
however, did not some one take the pains to think 
out and apply the fundamental principles involved. 

As has been already suggested, this doctrine of 
freedom of the will (which will be more fully devel- 
oped in a later chapter) is inseparably connected 
with questions of heredity and environment. As 
these influences assist or retard the educational 
process, it seems appropriate here to explain those 
views of heredity involved in that theory of the free 
will which has been stated herein, and which is 
applied and enforced in the succeeding chapters. In 
doing this it is unnecessary to enter upon that illimit- 
able field of discussion over which the scientists 



8 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

and philosophers of the world have driven one 
another in fruitless advance and retreat for many 
centuries. A few plain statements, which will appeal 
to the reason of the fairly well educated, will suffice 
for our purpose, leaving the hairsplitting arguments 
of philosophic scientists and scientific philosophers 
to those who make a specialty of such intricate 
studies. There will be selected here only those 
phases of these subjects which are likely to be of 
immediate advantage to practical teachers engaged 
in their daily work in the schoolroom. 

If heredity, in an individual case, be separated 
from environment, as I think it may be for purposes 
of thought at least, it is chiefly a matter of persist- 
ent tendency. It includes those forces which tend, 
in the process of growth, to modify or direct action 
irrespective of particular environment. There are 
native tendencies, too, for the individual, which must 
be carefully distinguished from inherited ones, in 
the ordinary use of the word " inherited." 

The author disclaims any intention of entering 
upon the discussion of the great question of the 
spiritual interpretation of the universe, made so 
interesting through discoveries in modern science 
and the results of recent philosophic thinking. Such 
discussion seems unnecessary, inasmuch as the re- 
sults, so far as demonstrated, in no wise affect the 
position assumed by the writer in this work. Should 



THE POINT OF VIEW 9 

the champion of materiaHsm substantiate all he sus- 
pects to be true, it would chiefly result in changing 
certain names; while if those philosophers who in- 
sist that even what is called matter is but a mode 
of spiritual activity should succeed in proving their 
contention, the conclusion would but emphasize the 
teachings here exemplified. The term " matter " 
whenever used in these pages is used in its ordinary 
meaning ; and the word " spirit " is applied to beings 
whose nature is expressed by such happy combina- 
tion of thinking and feeling and choosing as to con- 
stitute a true personality. 

As an example of a native tendency take an illus- 
tration from the germ of a seed. If the germ of a 
seed be examined under a microscope, there cannot 
be found in it a single root cell. But the first cell 
that forms at one end of the germ in the first act of 
growth is a root cell, and its first instinct is to seek 
the soil ; while the first cell formed at the other end 
is a stem cell, and it turns toward the light. These 
are native or race tendencies, inherent in the nature 
of the plant as a plant. If one's thinking be carried 
back far enough, it may be seen that even this tend- 
ency was orginally received through heredity, but 
it is now so firmly fixed in the constitution of all 
plants as to be regarded as a part of their essential 
nature. The tendency of a particular rose plant, 
however, to fill the cell in its flower leaves with red 



lO EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

coloring matter rather than with yellow is a clearly 
inherited tendency, involving a long preceding line 
of roses, which to some extent, under peculiar con- 
ditions, were led to do this same thing. To make 
its petals red is not a tendency of the plant as a 
plant; therefore it is not a native tendency but an 
inherited one, now inhering in this rose because a 
certain number of its predecessors have done so 
increasingly through a long line of descent. In like 
manner the tendency of a child to think, or to feel, 
or to choose, under appropriate conditions, is a 
native tendency, inherent in each child as represent- 
ing its human nature. But his tendency to run 
excessively to feeling rather than thought, or to 
thought rather than feeling, is an hereditary tend- 
ency. So any other noticeably peculiar mental ac- 
tion, which is not immediately dependent on any 
special environment, may be looked upon as a mat- 
ter of hereditary tendency. Many thinkers, in the 
face of much seeming testimony to the contrary, 
have denied the transmission from one generation 
to another of these acquired characteristics or tend- 
encies, saying that all tendencies found at birth are 
native tendencies, and that all others noticeable in 
a growing individual, amounting to peculiarities in 
many cases, are due in each individual to the 
influence of environment. They claim that all such 
peculiarities die with the death of the individual 



THE POINT OF VIEW ii 

manifesting them. Such writers account for the in- 
finite variety of human traits solely on the basis of 
environment, and they are quite willing to boast that 
all are born free, since no one is bound by hereditary 
tendencies. They are forced to admit, however, by 
their own theory, that although we have no inher- 
ited tendencies we are not really born free, for we 
enter at birth into a set of ideals, customs, laws, and 
institutions which proceed to bind us quite as effec- 
tually as we could have been bound by hereditary 
tendencies. In other words, the denial of the trans- 
mission of acquired characteristics does not seem to 
me to be any great argument in favor of freedom of 
the will, so long at least as we are compelled to 
admit the force of environment. As I shall show 
elsewhere, true freedom of the will is not affected 
by such questions. The argument against the trans- 
mission of hereditary tendencies breaks down, more- 
over, under the accumulation of evidence in the view 
of every observing student. The theory of free will 
taught in this book is not that one is born " free " 
from hereditary tendencies, or " free " from the in- 
fluence of environment ; but rather that one is born 
with the power to become free in the midst of both. 
Still other biological scientists claim that only 
those characteristics which have become thoroughly 
ingrained in the nature of the race are ever trans- 
mitted. This is only a special way of admitting that 



12 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

acquired characteristics are transmitted^ and that 
the more fully they have been ingrained in the 
nature by frequent and uninterrupted transmission, 
the surer are they to be transmitted regularly; all 
of which seems to be the truth when stated in this 
latter form. It is interesting to notice that while 
learned scientists have been asserting that it is 
utterly impossible that recently acquired character- 
istics can be transmitted, either in plant or animal 
life, Luther Burbank has proved that they are so 
transmitted in his own experimental gardens. In 
regard to the evidence shown there in plant life he 
has recently said that he sees no reason why analo- 
gous laws should not hold in animal life ; and that 
such laws, in all probability, are not confined to 
bodily traits, but belong equally to spiritual attri- 
butes. While, of course, Mr. Burbank's statements 
in regard to spiritual heredity are only matters of 
theory with him, they have the force which accom- 
panies the thinking of a man whose investigations 
in an analogous field give him the right to speak 
with some degree of confidence. 

The theory followed in this book is that spiritual 
as well as bodily characteristics are transmitted 
from parents to children, but under laws not yet 
well understood; that the most generally known 
law governing the case is that recently acquired 
characteristics are much less likely to be transmitted 



THE POINT OF VIEW 



13 



than those thoroughly ingrained in the nature by 
a long line of successive transmissions; and that 
when these recent characteristics are inherited, they 
are more likely to be irregularly and erratically 
transmitted. Of course, when these erratically trans- 
mitted characteristics are repeated many times 
through partial or complete transmission, they be- 
come fixed, and can be relied upon to descend with 
certainty and regularity from parents to children. 

This general law governs both spiritual character- 
istics and bodily peculiarities. It is recognized that 
in this possibility of transmission, from parents to 
children, of good qualities that have been acquired 
in one generation or in many generations, there lies 
the great hope that education (used in its largest 
sense) will eventually reclaim the world. It is also 
recognized that evil has the same general opportu- 
nity for increasing its range of power over the 
world as has good, were it not for two factors, 
namely (i) the possibility of vicarious regeneration 
of others by faithful parents and teachers, who fur- 
nish ideals and motives ; and (2) the greater strength 
and persistence of good over evil in the world. 
Nature is favorable to recovery, whether the dis- 
ease be physical or moral. This eternal health and 
sanity at the heart of things is the saving element 
in all life. The possibility of evil — degeneracy — is 
the necessary accompaniment of high development 



14 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

and supernal worth in human character; but it is 
only the negative side, and it has not the strength 
nor the persistence of the positive, aggressive, sav- 
ing element in the good. It must h^ possible for one 
to choose the evil in order that his choice of the 
good be of the highest worth and effect in charac- 
ter culture ; but the motives to right choice glow 
with a radiant steadiness and a permanency which 
make them finally attractive over the seductions of 
the evil life. The doctrine of heredity, then, when 
well understood, is in happy accordance with right 
methods in education, preserving and handing down 
to generations yet unborn every sincere effort in 
the right direction. It is full of suggestion to the 
earnest teacher and a self-replenishing source of in- 
spiration. There is here no support for pessimism or 
excuse for the doctrine of laissez faire in education. 
Even the question of environment is also, to some 
extent, a question of inheritance. At least a man 
may be said, somewhat figuratively, perhaps, to in- 
herit a set of social standards, ideals of life and 
conduct, customs, laws and institutions (domestic, 
social, political, and religious), and other limitations 
constituting the advantages or disadvantages per- 
taining to the community in which he is born and 
in which his education must take place. These in- 
fluences begin their work upon him before he be- 
comes conscious of their full meaning or bearing on 



THE POINT OF VIEW 15 

his life; and, before he is aware, they produce an 
effect on his character quite as forceful for good or 
evil as are even the most imperious inherited traits. 
It must be repeated, however, that neither the 
hereditary predispositions nor these forces of envi- 
ronment constitute a prohibition against freedom of 
the will, that is, its power to try to overcome them. They 
merely offer obstacles that should challenge action 
instead of precluding it. By freedom of the will is 
not meant that there are no obstacles to its com- 
plete sway, but rather that the human being has the 
power or tendency to choose to stand against these 
outside forces. If the soul cannot fully conquer 
these obstacles, it can at least minimize their evil 
effects. Herein is the inspiration of the true teacher, 
— the opportunity to offer motives which shall ap- 
peal to this free will and call out its action toward 
overcoming adverse inheritance or environment, 
and toward carrying forward the soul's own growth. 
The vicarious element in human life, so pathetically 
applied by Jesus Christ and all the martyrs and the 
saviors of men, is at bottom the principle which 
underlies the process of intentional education such 
as that offered by the school through the teacher. 
The teacher becomes a part of the new environment, 
offering nobler and more potent motives than those 
incidentally offered by heredity and the former envi- 
ronment. Whatever else the school may accomplish 



1 6 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

through the teacher, it must always encourage this 
growth of the soul and an effort toward more 
exalted ends than mere chance offers, thus leading 
to the development of noble character through 
heroic living. 

The act of teaching, then, is seen to be a perfectly 
natural process, being founded definitely on the 
principles of human nature. The study of human 
nature has usually been called psychology, and 
under this name has been a subject regarded with 
undue prejudice among teachers who have given it 
but slight attention or have studied it only in the 
abstract. As a matter of fact, in its concrete forms, 
that is, as it is exhibited in the everyday actions of 
all classes of people, it is an intensely interesting 
and absorbing study. The prior study of psychol- 
ogy proper, that is, human nature as a science, is 
profitable to teachers mainly in the degree in which 
it enables them to interpret more rapidly and effec- 
tively human nature exhibited in actual life, and 
especially in the schoolroom. The succeeding chap- 
ters of this book elaborate a theory of education in 
harmony with the latest and best results of psycho- 
logical study so far as the author can interpret them, 
though little attempt is made to explain psychology 
itself. It is believed that the principles of psychology 
are so simply and definitely illustrated by the suc- 
cessive discussions that all will be seen to be in full 



THE POINT OF VIEW 17 

harmony with human nature, even by those who 
have had no special interest in psychological studies; 
while to those more thoroughly trained in psy- 
chology by previous study a deeper meaning and 
worthier suggestion will be apparent. 

The author is aware that a few favored persons 
inherit the ability to understand human nature in 
the concrete without studying it in the abstract, but 
he is also aware that most people need all the help 
possible before attempting to deal with so complex 
a problem as a school ; and he is therefore a firm 
believer in the study of psychology and allied sub- 
jects by all persons who would aspire to the high 
title of teacher. Through long experience in teach- 
ing and the supervision of schools he has observed 
that those young teachers who at first teach so well 
by native grace, lose this power after a little while 
unless they grow interested in a more scientific 
study of their work. Their supply of native or in- 
herited tact is soon exhausted, and their interest, at 
first stimulated by novelty, begins to wane unless a 
careful study of human nature and its needs supplies 
a more permanent set of motives. Without such 
study the teacher who started out as a wise, tactful, 
successful worker frequently grows into a routine 
follower of forms, and ends in being a mediocre, 
commonplace, dissatisfied drudge. On the other 
hand, the author has seen those who blundered 



i8 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

openly and unmistakably at first, saved by their ear- 
nestness and enthusiasm, which led them to study 
their profession. Many of these he has seen grow 
into teachers of great tact, freedom, and efficiency, 
through this more fundamental understanding of the 
principles of teaching. In fact, his observations have 
led him into the belief that in general only those 
who keep an interest in the continued study of the 
principles of their work and their applications, con- 
tinue to be efficient as the years go by, or attain to 
any degree of success which would warrant their 
being considered as professional teachers. While 
these truths are in general applicable to the members 
of any profession, as a keen observer will have full 
opportunity to verify, they may be said to be espe- 
cially applicable to teachers, because the large scope 
of their work, and the extreme complexity of human 
nature and of shifting social and political conditions, 
all tend to make the intelligent practice of their 
profession more difficult than that of any other. Yet 
I think that most of us can see many instances of 
the potency of these tests as applied to ministers, 
doctors, and lawyers who have come under our 
observation. 

Those phases of psychology applicable to school 
education are so inwoven with the very texture of 
the remaining chapters, and so fully explained by 
the illustrations given, that it has not been deemed 



THE POINT OF VIEW 19 

necessary to make a detailed separate treatment of 
the subject in this prehminary chapter. There is, 
however, one phase of the subject so fundamental 
that it is everywhere implied and used rather than 
explained, and so it seems better to make some 
detailed study of it here before going to its applica- 
tions in the following chapters. 

It has been suggested in earlier pages that this 
book is written in the belief that the human soul is 
a spiritual being, and that its connection with the 
material body is an incident that in no way changes 
its spiritual nature. This statement does not bring 
into question any theory as to how the soul has 
become what it is, whether by special creation or by 
evolution of some sort, but merely refers to its pres- 
ent condition. 

This spiritual nature consists in the fact that on 
occasion the soul can think and feel and choose, — 
actions which no being composed entirely of matter 
can perform. It has the power, too, to maintain 
such relations of these three activities as prove it a 
person. Whenever in this volume the word " spirit " 
" mind," or " soul " is used as a noun, or whenever 
the word " spiritual " is used as an adjective, there 
is implied the above meaning, namely, the ability to 
think, feel, and choose, in contradistinction to any 
action that is merely reflex or automatic, such as 
might belong to a material object. This distinction 



20 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

between spirit and matter is fundamental, and with 
its implications will serve to give distinctive tone 
to all that may be said in the following pages. 

By the human soul, however, is meant the soul 
actually connected with and using the body. This 
constitutes its human aspects. What the soul may 
be after it leaves the body, or what its mode of life 
may then be, is not here under consideration. The 
soul is the element which may be educated, while 
the body alone is powerless. So long as the body is 
informed and interpenetrated by the spirit it may 
be trained, and thus become an eflBcient instrument 
for the service of the soul. Such training of the 
body or any of its organs as requires the constant, 
conscientious cooperation of the mind may, by 
courtesy, be called education ; as instructors in gym- 
nasiums all over the country have tended to adopt 
the term " physical education " rather than " physical 
training^'' as indicative of the higher ratio of mind 
exercise which they hope to involve in their work. 
Advocates of so-called manual training have, on the 
other hand, unfortunately used the lower term. The 
view of the soul here described does not tend to 
throw discredit upon phases of education such as 
those just mentioned, but rather shows how to 
make them successful, and how to gather about 
them those professional associations which will give 
them a more dignified place in educational thought 



THE POINT OF VIEW 21 

and literature. Nor does this view of the soul, tend- 
ing as it does frankly toward education as a culture 
process, belittle the utilitarian side of education, as 
will be fully shown in the chapter which treats of 
ideals and motives as educational forces. What it 
does insist upon is that no process is valid as an 
educational procedure which does not go forward 
on the theory that in the mysterious combination 
making up the human being as we know him in 
this world, the soul is master and the body is serv- 
ant. We know little of the soul as an independent 
existence, except through such inferences as we are 
justified in drawing from the knowledge we gain of 
it as we find it connected with the body. We must 
therefore deal with it in education by fully recog- 
nizing its connection with the body, and indeed its 
dependence in many ways upon the body for its 
own continued existence in this world. 

These conditions justify all efforts that have been 
made in recent years to find out the facts and 
methods of the relationship between body and mind, 
which has interested psychologists from the begin- 
ning of the study; but they hardly justify the rash 
utterances of students, who, impatient of results, 
have indulged in speculations of a materialistic na- 
ture. The author feels that the investigations now 
being carried on carefully, industriously, and con- 
scientiously in psychological laboratories in various 



22 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

parts of the world are likely in the end to give us 
a reliable body of truth that shall greatly illumi- 
nate the educational process; but that as yet the 
definite conclusions reached are much too meager 
to allow the building upon them of any elaborate 
educational structures. Such studies have already 
had large results for good in the deeper sympathy 
for childhood induced by them, and in the relief 
given to abnormal children. The author looks to 
see in the near future much additional light from 
the same source. 

It does not seem likely, however, that any dis- 
covery will be made that shall change our present 
estimate of the nature of the soul itself, although 
we may gain greatly in understanding the relation- 
ship of the soul and the body. It is to be hoped 
that we shall learn much more than we know now 
about how to treat the body in the interests of the 
soul, especially how to treat the nervous system, 
which is so intimately associated with the soul's 
actions. But, after all, it is the soul's own action 
which must be roused and directed if true education 
is to proceed. So we must always, in our methods 
of teaching, respect the soul as a self-active, respon- 
sible entity, however much we may learn about 
better ways of using the body in its interest. 

There seems one more psychological truth need- 
ing explanation before we are fully ready to open 



THE POINT OF VIEW 23 

the treatment of our main theme, and this is the 
simple truth (with large implications) that each soul 
is a one thing, — a unity, an essence, spiritual in 
its nature, and thereby absolutely indivisible. The 
soul does not even have parts, as that term is usually 
applied to material things. The soul has three great 
capacities, namely, the capacities of thinking, feeling, 
and willing ; but the thing, the something, the spirit- 
ual unit which possesses these capacities and uses 
them, is strictly an indivisible unit. Remaining 
always a one thing, this one thing is developed and 
made greater and more worthy or powerful through 
the proper exercise of these capacities; and the 
process by which such increase of power or worthi- 
ness is gained is properly termed education, whether 
attained in school or in other disciplines of life. 
Thus education is never a static something already 
finished, but always a process, a becoming, a move- 
ment toward a far-away ideal. This book, however, 
treats chiefly of the process as carried forward in 
the school and as limited to the young. 

This simple conception of the essential unity, or 
oneness of the soul, endowed with definite capacities, 
throws such illumination upon otherwise obscure 
matters in education that it seems worth while to 
illustrate it a little. Thus we say that the soul is a 
one thing, endowed, for instance, with the power to 
think; and that while it is thus endowed with the 



24 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

power to think, it is also endowed with the power 
to feel, and that it may at will exercise either or 
both of these capacities or powers; and that while 
endowed with these powers, it is also endowed with 
the power to choose among a number of attributes, 
which may be under consideration by the soul 
through its power of knowing and feeling ; and that 
the exercise of one or all of these powers at once 
does not cause any multiplicity of essence, but only 
a complexity of activities. Examples of just such a 
situation are common in everyday life and cause no 
difficulty or comment there. A single illustration 
will be sufficient. The various small organizations 
by which social and political affairs are administered, 
require for their effectiveness certain officials, who 
are usually selected by the membership of the special 
organizations themselves. The most common officers 
are president, secretary, and treasurer; and vice 
president, sergeant at arms, and others are some- 
times added. Custom has assigned quite definite 
duties to these officers, so that if nothing be cited 
in constitution or by-laws in reference to their duties 
in any case, the officers know with sufficient accu- 
racy what is required of each. In smaller organiza- 
tions it is not unusual to choose the same person as 
secretary and as treasurer of the body, when he is 
usually styled secretary-treasurer. Here is one per- 
son — an undivided unity — exercising two functions, 



THE POINT OF VIEW 25 

that of secretary and that of treasurer, without pro- 
ducing any lack of unity in himself as a person by 
such complexity of performance. And were still 
other functions given him, requiring still other 
activities, these would not affect the unity of his 
personality, not even if the numerous duties inter- 
fered somewhat with one another. 

He would still be one person everlastingly in- 
divisible. So the human soul, exercising in complex 
profusion its three great capacities in numerous 
acts more or less varied, is still in itself one and 
indivisible. 

It is not safe to press a metaphor too far, but the 
illustration used above has one more happy adap- 
tation to the case in hand. As secretary-treasurer 
the man's duties might be performed successively 
or even at the same time. As treasurer he is charged 
with the safe-keeping of all moneys belonging to the 
organization. While he is thus holding securely in 
bank or elsewhere this money for which he is respon- 
sible by bond or otherwise, he may as secretary con- 
duct the correspondence of the organization without 
in any way lessening his reliability as treasurer. At 
another time, however, while conducting this corre- 
spondence under pressure, some one might be urg- 
ing him for a check which he could give only in his 
capacity as treasurer. He could perform but one 
duty at a time, and one or the other would have to 



26 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

await the completion of that which had already been 
begun. So duties and functions might interfere with 
one another. It is even to be conceived that with 
the growth of his official correspondence his value 
as treasurer might be reduced, or vice versa. It is 
also conceivable that these duties might reenforce 
one another, — that the knowledge gained in con- 
ducting one office might render the person more 
efficient in the other. So certain definite possibilities 
lie in the combination of the coexisting duties and 
activities of this one man, — these duties now con- 
flicting, now reenforcing one another, and now flow- 
ing peacefully side by side, without at any time 
affecting the personal unity of the official. 

Singularly close analogous conditions exist with 
reference to the soul and its complex capacities and 
activities. The soul, though in itself one, is endowed 
by its very nature with three great capacities, — the 
power to think, to feel, and to will (or choose). It is 
doubtful if the soul ever ceases to act in every one 
of these ways after such action has once been 
consciously roused. These coexisting activities, like 
the duties of the secretary-treasurer, may conflict 
with or reenforce one another; or they may peace- 
fully proceed side by side without influencing one 
another at all. Each person, by reference to his 
own case, can verify these statements. There are 
experiences in which strong feeling precludes clear 



THE POINT OF VIEW 27 

thinking; in other cases a happy flow of feeHng 
seems to be the thing needed to make thinking easy 
and effective. All will recognize the fact that strong 
conviction and intensity of feeling are precisely what 
stimulate and control choice; yet there are times 
when a peaceful serenity, indicating an absence of 
conflicting activities of the soul, is essential to wise 
judgment. 

But our figure will bear one more application. 
We have seen that the secretary-treasurer is essen- 
tially one person, though transacting different and 
differing duties. We have also seen that these duties 
may conflict with one another, may assist one an- 
other, or may coexist without noticeably affecting 
one another. But whenever this person transacted 
any one of these duties it was the whole person who 
did it, though his power to do this thing well might 
have been reduced by his other duties or responsi- 
bilities. His power to do any one of his duties might 
at any time have been augmented or decreased by his 
other duties, but his personality as a unity was never 
in any way affected thereby. In every act that he 
performed it was his whole self that did it, though 
sometimes with diminished capability. So it is with 
the soul and its activities. These activities coexist, 
often influencing one another as to character or de- 
gree; but each one of these is the action of the 
whole soul, — of an individual unity. 



28 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

Psychologists have doubtless always been aware of 
this great truth, but have not always been careful to 
imply it in their language. By using the terms "in- 
tellect," " sensibility," and " will " so frequently they 
have implied a threefold division of the soul, each 
part having definite functions. The illustration given 
above shows how the three great classes of activity 
of soul coexist as activities of the one indivisible 
soul, — each as much a product of this soul unity as 
if no other had been existing at the same time. 
What the psychologists really mean is perhaps made 
clear by saying that " intellect " is not a part of the 
soul, but "the whole soul predominantly engaged 
in thinking"; "sensibility," not a part of the soul, 
capable only of feeling, but " the whole soul pre- 
dominantly engaged in feeling " ; " will," not some 
part of the soul capable of choosing, but " the whole 
soul engaged predominantly in choosing." These 
are rather words of emphasis, and are always to be 
so interpreted, never for a moment allowing the idea 
of the eternally indivisible unity of the soul to be 
clouded. The same holds true of all the long list 
of terms which represent what psychologists have 
sometimes called " faculties." In each case we merely 
mean to emphasize the predominant state of the soul 
as relating to knowledge or feeling or choice. 

A single additional phase of this matter will com- 
plete our preliminary survey of the field and open 



THE POINT OF VIEW 29 

the way fully for our future discussion. We have 
seen that the soul carries on three great lines of 
activity all the time, and that some one of these is 
usually relatively high in degree as compared with 
the others. We have in a general way indicated the 
differences in the character of these classes of ac- 
tivities by showing that one class relates itself chiefly 
and directly to the gaining of knowledge in some 
form; a second relates itself to what is popularly 
known as feeling or emotion; and the third has to 
do with our choices. These activities are ultimate 
things in their realm, experienced by all but not 
easily defined by any. Indeed it is impossible to 
define these finalities, since there is nothing like any 
one of them with which we may class it for identifi- 
cation and formal definition. But we may distin- 
guish them in such vague ways as have already been 
pointed out, and we may refer each person to his 
own consciousness for more exact observations. 

This reference to each person's consciousness 
ought to reveal to each another fact, of great signif- 
icance in the development of character as a result 
of education. This further fact is that there is no 
absolute line of demarcation or difference among 
these activities, or between any two of them. Out- 
side of mathematics nature seems to abhor perfect 
classifications. Each act of the soul may be pre- 
dominantly one or another of these three, — thinking, 



30 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

feeling, or choosing, — but not wholly so ; it is always 
tinged with one or more of the others. Our descrip- 
tions of states of the soul as states of thought or of 
feeling or of willing are merely expressions describ- 
ing a predominance of one or the other of these 
states. The soul is never engaged in pure thinking, 
untinged by feeling, or vice versa; but each act of 
the soul is some happy blending of two or more 
of them, — perhaps of all three in even the simplest 
process. We move this way or that in our per- 
sonal experiences, now moving toward absorption in 
thought, now toward feeling, or now deciding our 
course in a great crisis of life; but some blending 
of all three varieties will be found in each act. Our 
moods are but variations of the degrees of the three, 
no one ever being entirely omitted. Thus we begin 
to see that experiences which at first seemed differ- 
ences blend into a unity, all the richer by reason 
of the resulting complexity. The great end of edu- 
cation is well-nigh reached when control and right 
direction of these blending activities shall have been 
acquired by the soul, so that it shall pursue its course 
measurably free from the control of heredity and en- 
vironment. And the glory of the teacher is that he 
is permitted, during this minority of the child, to 
suggest standards and supply motives till such time 
as the immature person shall have become mature ; 
the weak, strong ; the ignorant, intelligent ; and the 



THE POINT OF VIEW 31 

irresponsible, moral; so that he can thereafter take 
the rudder in his own hand and direct safely his 
own course in life. It is thus the teacher's business 
to make himself no longer necessary to his pupil. 

Under the guidance of such doctrine as the 
foregoing, the four succeeding chapters, making up 
the body of this book, have been written. It is in 
the light which these principles may throw over the 
pages that these chapters are to be interpreted. 
The intention has been to take up mainly the 
cultural side of education, as has already been in- 
dicated in the Point of View. The theme unfolds 
itself therefore along that line, and while the dis- 
cussion is liberal in tone it is necessarily narrow 
in range. 

The line of thought followed, naturally divides 
itself into four remaining chapters : 

1. Self-activity. 

2. Self-revelation. 

3. Self-direction. 

4. Self-realization. 

Each of these terms is interpreted liberally. The 
chapter on Self-activity discusses this principle as 
conditioning all educational processes and directing 
their methods. Self-activity is seen to be the primal 
essence of the soul, out of which all progression 
toward excellence is possible. The other three 
terms express the higher and higher stages of the 



32 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

self-active spirit, as bud, flower, and fruit express 
the higher and higher stages in the annual life 
cycle of a plant. There is then no possible abrupt 
termination of the one or the beginning of another, 
but a gradual transition from the predominance of 
one to the enlarging power of another. 

The chapter on Self-revelation treats of the rev- 
elation of the soul to itself, through the use it 
makes of the knowledge which by its self-activity 
it has acquired. That on Self-direction treats of the 
correlation of previous experiences into ideals and 
motives, placing the directive power of a person's 
life within his own soul, thus making him a moral 
and responsible person and member of his com- 
munity. The chapter on Self-realization discusses 
the processes by which the truly educated person 
becomes the highest type of being of which 
humanity is capable. 



CHAPTER II 
SELF-ACTIVITY 

The human soul is a spiritual entity whose 
essence is self-activity. Out of this primal attribute 
all the other elements of human character develop 
as self-activity seeks to realize itself in human free- 
dom. Without this self-activity — the power of 
initiative, the power to begin action without com- 
pulsion from another — the human soul would not 
be responsible for its own actions. In such case 
there could be no moral element in human action, 
and the cultivation of character through education 
would be impossible. It is important therefore to 
make clear the nature of self-activity, as a necessary 
condition for the discussion of all methods for the 
development of character, whether in the school or 
elsewhere. 

In the treatment of an idea so fundamental as 
self-activity it is impossible to present its full mean- 
ing by mere definition. One must rather take the 
method of suggestion, in which partial definition, 
appeal to experience, and statement of fact mingle 
in such way as to arouse and direct the thinking 
power of the learner until he thinks out for himself 

33 



34 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the idea thus suggested and identifies it with his 
own experience. 

In fact the very nature of self-activity makes the 
appeal to experience its strongest proof. He who 
finds himself exercising self-activity in some em- 
phatic way on some notable occasion is better able 
to recognize descriptions or definitions of it; and 
he alone who has had such experience really be- 
lieves in self-activity as an actual attribute of him- 
self. Henceforward no sophistry can shake his 
belief in his own power of initiative, nor can it 
relieve him from that sense of responsibility which 
always accompanies the recognition of one's self- 
activity. It is essential to moral culture that the 
feeling of responsibility shall be naturally developed 
as our self-activity gradually makes itself clear in 
our experience and conclusive to our reason. Mod- 
ern school methods have sometimes failed to reach 
this important end in moral culture of the young, 
from a mistaken notion that learning should be 
made interesting at all hazards. The idea that chil- 
dren must always be entertained has often led to 
practices especially enervating to the will, which is 
merely another name for self-activity. 

So soon as a person has developed a feeling of 
responsibility through the experience of his own 
initiative, it is possible to teach him a sense of 
worthiness, as a result of meeting fairly and properly 



SELF-ACTIVITY 35 

the responsibilities of life. This sense of worthiness 
as a result of right action is the noblest and most 
powerful motive that can be made to appeal to a 
human being. It cannot come to any one till he has 
experienced his personal freedom, so far as choice of 
his own course of action is concerned. This sense 
of worthiness, connected with right action, is the 
correlative of remorse, as related to wrong action. 

Neither a sense of worth nor one of remorse can 
appeal to any person till he has had his sense of 
right and wrong somewhat developed, and this can- 
not be done with an individual till he appreciates 
to some extent his own power of initiative in action, 
and therefore his share of responsibility for the con- 
sequences of his action. Although all these appre- 
ciations develop in a sense together, yet there is a 
logical sequence which is absolutely controlling, 
however small the portion of time intervening in 
any case. 

The supreme importance of a right understand- 
ing of the doctrine of self-activity is sufficient 
reason for an extended treatment of the theme 
before presenting those other and more obvious 
elements of character culture which so completely 
depend upon the facts of personal initiative. The 
subject is made more complicated by the fact that 
in the human being the soul (or spirit) is connected 
with the material body. At birth the human being 



36 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

is an embodied soul (or spirit), that is, a soul which 
has begun to build for itself a body. This body it 
inhabits and uses, or soon learns to use, as a 
medium of contact with the material world. Impor- 
tant relationships come to exist between the soul 
and the body, which thus together constitute the 
human being. Neither is a constituent of the other, 
nor do the two follow the same laws of develop- 
ment. Nevertheless there are important analogies 
developed as the double life proceeds, and we shall 
need to take account of the reciprocal influences 
which from time to time make themselves em- 
phatically felt. 

It is especially to be noted that it is only after an 
understanding of the elementary stages of mind 
development, dependent on the senses, that one is 
in condition to appreciate fully the higher stages 
of human culture, in which the moral tendency of 
human action is so controlling and significant. The 
reader will therefore be the more patient during the 
following discussion of certain relationships of body 
and soul, which at first seem far away from our 
theme, but which in the end will be seen to have 
furnished the key to a right appreciation of what 
might else have remained obscure. 

The self-activity of a human infant needs to be 
carefully distinguished from some limited forms of 
self-activity, as, for instance, that found in plants. 



SELF-ACTIVITY 37 

Indeed, we may come to see its true nature better if 
for a moment we compare and contrast it with the 
life principle in a seed. Every fully ripened seed 
which has not been subjected to unnatural condi- 
tions has this life principle existing in its germ. 
Whenever the appropriate conditions are supplied, 
such as air, soil, warmth, and moisture, the life prin- 
ciple in the germ of the seed has the power to begin 
a process of cell building by which it embodies itself 
in a new plant. At first this power is only sufficient 
to build cells out of prepared material placed in the 
seed surrounding the germ by the preceding plant. 
But a little later, after a few new cells at one end 
of the germ have been formed into a little root, 
and a few cells at the other end of the same germ 
have been formed into a little stem with tiny leaves, 
the self-active power, originally in the germ of the 
seed, but now embodied in the growing plant, ac- 
quires the power to go outside the seed and seize 
upon the molecules of matter in air, soil, and mois- 
ture, destroy the chemical combinations in which it 
finds them, select such as serve its uses, and build 
these molecules into plant cells, which it distri- 
butes within its growing structure according to its 
type or kind. The growing plant has thus begun 
to conquer its environment and to take from it 
such portions as it can best use for its own life 
development. 



38 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

In this beautiful process of growth it is important 
for present purposes to note especially two or three 
points : (i) the life principle in the seed has the power 
to begin this process of growth when the appropriate 
conditions are supplied ; (2) through the instrumen- 
tality of the growing plant thus developed, this life 
principle or self-activity acquires the power to con- 
quer its environment and to make it serve its own 
uses ; and (3) this power exhausts itself in providing 
for its own reincarnation in the seed again. The 
whole life history of self-activity as exemplified in 
plant life is included in the cycle from seed to seed 
again, although some plants repeat this cycle through 
many years. 

There is an almost completely analogous proce- 
dure in the case of a human being. The self-activity 
of the infant, through its developing body, acquires 
the power to take possession of its physical environ- 
ment in a process of growth, building the animal 
cells thus produced into the structure of its body. 

This analogy of procedure in the two cases is very 
striking, resulting in each instance in a closed cycle 
when the self-active power is insured its reembodi- 
ment in appropriate form. Here, however, the analogy 
ends and the contrasts begin. The contrasts are 
numerous and important. 

I. The self-active principle of the plant has no 
other uses which it can make of the external world. 



SELF-ACTIVITY 39 

The self-active principle of the human being, the 
soul, can make spiritual uses of the material world 
through its distinctive power of knowing, feeling, and 
choosing. These spiritual uses of the external world 
do not destroy the matter used, nor do they neces- 
sarily change its physical conditions or relations. 
The changes made are produced in the soul itself, 
constituting, when properly carried out, a course of 
character development. This use of the material 
world as a means of soul development or character 
culture is made possible by the use which the spirit 
makes of the body as a means of contact with matter. 
2. Another marked contrast lies in the fact that 
the self-active principle in the seed cannot decline 
to begin action when appropriate conditions are sup- 
plied, nor can it act in any other way than that 
determined by the conditions themselves. If these 
conditions be supplied to a seed in which the life 
principle has been destroyed by unnatural exposure, 
they but hasten the decay of the lifeless seed. It 
is therefore the self-active principle which begins 
growth and secures mastery over matter, but it can 
exercise this self-activity only in limited forms and 
under definite compulsions. The human spirit, on 
the contrary, may, in its spiritual uses of the world, 
decline to act when the conditions are supplied, and 
may even act in some way not suggested directly by 
the conditions. It may even be whimsical about it. 



40 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

Therefore it may not be commanded nor entirely 
controlled by its environment. Indeed, to a consid- 
erable degree — an increasing degree as development 
proceeds — it may create its own environment and 
determine the conditions of its own action. 

The human being, then, is a self -active entity. It 
is composed of a spirit and a body, the latter used 
by the spirit as a means of contact with the material 
world. I do not know what solicitations may be 
offered to pure spirit — a spirit not supplied with a 
body — to begin an action of thinking, or feeling, or 
choosing; but with human beings the first solicita- 
tions to such action come through the sense organs 
of the body. Through the eye bright colors and 
pleasing forms solicit the active attention of the 
spirit (mind or soul) within ; and in due season, and 
of its own volition, the soul responds to the solicita- 
tions and begins a process which, as it grows in 
complexity, results in knowledge, accompanied ulti- 
mately by feeling and choice. Through the senses of 
sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing, and perhaps others, 
the various objects of the external world make their 
appeal to the developing mind. Whenever voluntary 
response is made to these solicitations, mind action 
is established and definite knowledge of the external 
world is obtained, its particular kind being deter- 
mined by the sense organ through which the solici- 
tation is carried. In each case the sense organ that 



SELF-ACTIVITY 41 

carries the solicitation furnishes the conditions under 
which the mind can obtain a certain kind of knowl- 
edge. Though there are certain vicarious relation- 
ships, no one of them can act as a full substitute for 
another. All the senses are needed for that complete 
knowledge of the external world which seems so 
necessary to physical existence and so helpful as a 
basis for moral development. How all this occurs as 
a purely natural process of development is the inter- 
esting theme of the next few pages. 

It is to the physiological psychologists that we are 
indebted for these discussions. Until within the last 
few years there were no reliable data in regard to the 
physical functions which condition all knowledge of 
the external world. Now, however, thanks to those 
who have worked so patiently and effectively in the 
thoroughly equipped psychological laboratories of 
the great universities, the chief physiological facts 
are definitely determined, and the psychologist has 
only to interpret them by showing the way in which 
the soul uses the magnificent mechanism furnished 
it in the nervous system of the human body. 

A brief description of the nervous system in its 
simplest elements seems necessary here as a basis 
for the explanation of the knowing process as we 
must come to understand it in order to appreciate 
its fundamental relations to character growth. Only 
such portions of the nervous system will be mentioned 



42 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

as are requisite to an understanding of the process 
of acquiring knowledge, leaving out all confusing 
details. Should the reader desire fuller discussion of 
these physiological conditions, they are now happily 
described in numerous volumes devoted to this phase 
of our subject. These details are not essential to the 
understanding of general mental processes, but only 
to the comprehension of numerous minute variations 
of mental action which are not now under considera- 
tion. They may therefore be left for the student who 
is especially interested in such things, since they do 
not greatly influence the mental processes with which 
the teacher deals in ordinary problems of education. 
So far as each sense organ offers a condition for 
mental action in a human being, its chief element is 
a nerve fiber or a collection of nerve fibers. The 
usefulness of the nerve fiber for this purpose con- 
sists in its capability of receiving and carrying what 
is known as a nervous impulse. Its outer extremity 
is influenced peculiarly by some physical force, — 
light, pressure, taste, odor, sound, temperature, or 
some other force. The molecular impulse thus im- 
parted to the nerve extremity is carried to the inner 
extremity of the nerve fiber, — the brain or some 
similar ganglion of nervous matter. The nervous 
impulse or molecular motion which thus travels from 
outer nerve tip to inner extremity within the brain 
sets up a molecular disturbance in the gray matter 



SELF-ACTIVITY 43 

of the brain tissue. Such disturbance repeated many- 
times renders such gray matter more and more sus- 
ceptible to being thus influenced, that is, it organizes 
the gray matter into a better and better receiving 
organ for such nervous impulses. 

When such molecular disturbance has grown 
strong by repetition, it has power to attract the at- 
tention of the soul. The soul is not compelled to 
give its attention. It may be engaged in some other 
employment which it prefers, and from which it 
refuses to be drawn away by any ordinary solicitation. 
In the very early life of the child, however, — at the 
dawning of mental action, — the attention is usually 
soon attracted to some of these disturbances of gray 
matter brought about by nervous impulses from the 
various sense organs. Those caused by light and 
carried through the optic nerve seem to be most 
powerfully attractive ; at least, so far as observers 
have reported, attention is first noticed in connection 
with the sense of sight. Nervous impulses originated 
by moving or brightly colored objects seem to make 
the strongest appeal. 

The response of the soul in these cases is vague 
at first. It grows stronger, more definite, and effec- 
tive only after numerous repetitions. When the 
attraction is so strong that the soul gives its atten- 
tion, the result is an awareness by the soul of this 
molecular disturbance in the gray matter of the 



44 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

brain. This awareness is what the later psycholo- 
gists call sensation. It is probably a blending of 
knowledge and feeling, the latter predominating. Its 
precise nature is a matter of conjecture, or, at best, 
of reason, since none of us can remember our own 
experiences of this kind; indeed, the first ones, in 
all probability, are too vague to form any basis of 
memory. The nature of these earliest mental proc- 
esses is, however, fairly well inferred from a study of 
our later mental actions through our own conscious- 
ness. The process by which attention is solicited 
through other sense organs is substantially like that 
described in connection with sight. The awareness 
in each case varies according to the nature of the 
nervous impulse carried. 

All the physical apparatus for the production of 
sensation as described above is supplied to the 
child, ready for use, as soon as he enters the world. 
He is equipped at birth with the sense organs 
adapted to gather the physical influences which are 
to affect the outer extremity of the nerve fiber 
resident in any particular sense organ. The nerve 
fiber itself is already organized to carry the in- 
fluence received by its own molecular action to its 
inner extremity in the gray matter of the brain, 
or, in some cases, to another mass of nervous 
matter. The gray matter of the brain has already 
been made susceptible to this nervous influence, 



SELF-ACTIVITY 45 

so that a peculiar molecular disturbance is set up 
within it by the transmission to it of the nervous 
impulse carried by the afferent (inbearing) nerve. 
This " organized " condition of the afferent nerve 
is well known to physiologists through experiment. 
There are also some evidences of a like organi- 
zation of nerve fibers extending from the same gray 
matter of the brain outward to certain organs of 
motion, such as the hands, lower limbs, etc. This 
organization makes these nerve fibers susceptible 
of being affected by the molecular action of the 
gray matter of the brain, as set up there by the 
nervous impulse brought to it by the afferent nerve 
from the sense organ, or by the direct will of the 
person. Thus the gray matter of the brain, through 
its molecular action, sets up a resulting action in 
certain efferent (outbearing) nerves, whose outer 
extremities lie in certain muscles. This outgoing 
nervous impulse causes certain molecular disturb- 
ances in muscles, known as contraction and relaxa- 
tion. In this way motion of the whole organ is 
brought about automatically by successive trans- 
ferences or transmissions of nervous impulse from 
a sense organ along the afferent nerve, through a 
brain center, or other nervous matter, and along an 
efferent nerve to the muscles which move a particular 
part of the body. These actions are at first entirely 
automatic. The most conspicuous of these automatic 



46 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

actions of the baby are the purposeless movements 
of hands and feet, though there are many others. 
Many of these actions are noticed before there is 
any evidence of the awareness which constitutes 
sensation ; though no doubt the conditions for both 
automatic action and sensation begin substantially 
at the same time. The former are immediate phys- 
ical responses without intervention of mind action, 
while the latter must wait the voluntary notice of a 
mind, however immature. 

There is a peculiar reason why this organization 
of nervous matter, fitting it to carry nervous im- 
pulse, should be available at birth for the production 
of motion in many bodily organs, for the preser- 
vation of health, and for the establishment of right 
conditions of growth ; and this automatic power 
extends to all organs in some degree. But in refer- 
ence to the movement of the hands, for which the 
organization is quite perfect, there is another and 
weightier reason, as we shall see when we come to 
speak of the beginnings of purposive actions of 
the child. The hand becomes the most significant 
educational equipment of the developing mind. 
Through it is begun the process of soul growth 
resulting in other forms of expression, even of oral 
and written speech. This insight, when explained, 
will give a new and deeper significance to the sub- 
ject of manual training, especially in the lower grades. 



SELF-ACTIVITY 47 

We have now seen that the child has at birth 
a complete physical apparatus for supplying all 
the conditions for sensation, and that soon after 
birth he gives voluntarily sufhcient attention to 
the molecular action set up in the brain to secure 
for himself sensations, — vague, it is true, at first, 
but real sensations so far as their nature is con- 
cerned. While these sensations are vague and few 
the child does not have any perceptions. By this is 
meant that the sensations as yet have no meaning 
to him. They must be interpreted or understood. 
When this takes place it will be an intellectual act, 
which will result in knowledge. This interpretative 
act begins as vaguely and proceeds as slowly as did 
the act of sensation, becoming, through much repe- 
tition under slightly varying circumstances, more 
and more definite. As the molecular action solic- 
ited attention, resulting in sensation, these sensa- 
tions, when they become vivid and numerous, solicit 
further attention resulting in perception, namely, 
the discovery of the meaning of these sensations. 
This meaning takes the form of the percepts of sight, 
sound, taste, touch, smell, temperature, form, etc. 

Very exact observations of infancy have been 
made and verified, showing the stages of progress 
in growth and sensations within a short time after 
birth, and through the early months and years 
of life. It is not necessary for our purpose here 



48 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

to trace this progression in detail. We do need to 
notice that it is essentially a voluntary action on 
the part of the learner, — the exerting of a perfectly 
natural function, made possible in its early stages 
by the happy adaptation of the spirit to the mate- 
rial world through the nervous organization of the 
body, whereby the external world is able to make 
its insistent appeal to the spirit within. 

Were it not for the self-active nature of the mind 
(or soul), the appeal would be in vain. It is this 
ever-present power to initiate its own activities that 
distinguishes the soul so completely from physical 
organisms, which must depend upon compulsion or 
propulsion for all their movements. 

We are now to see still more wonderful proof of 
the self-active character of the soul than has yet 
been shown. This will appear as soon as we begin 
to study those phases of the soul's action which 
introduce purpose as a distinctly volitional activity. 
For the complete explanation of this phase of 
self-activity we must again go to the experiments 
of the physiological psychologists. 

It has already been explained that the child 
comes into the world with a ready-made physical 
apparatus for receiving external stimuli through 
sense organs, and for carrying the nervous impulse 
thus generated to internal masses of nervous matter, 
either the brain itself or some organ which acts in 



SELF-ACTIVITY 49 

conjunction with the brain or instead of it, as the 
spinal cord or the nervous masses of the gangUa of 
the sympathetic nervous system. These matters are 
common facts of physiological knowledge and do 
not need elaboration here. It has been noticed also 
that the child is born with a less well-developed ap- 
paratus for carrying the nervous impulses through 
a brain center outward to muscles, forming the basis 
for rudimentary, spasmodic, unintentional action. 

This preparation for unintentional or automatic 
action is complete enough at birth to be the con- 
dition for inaugurating and continuing the life of 
the child in the new environment, through such 
stimuli as come to him by means of the sense 
organs, or from chemical and physical changes 
which arise within the body itself, especially in the 
blood. Many of these chemical changes are taking 
place at the time of birth, and where they continue 
as purely chemical or physical changes they are 
independent as yet of any volition of the child 
himself. All the processes of circulation, diges- 
tion, nutrition, and the like are thus made sure to 
the child by prepared apparatus and by forces or 
stimuli furnished by the outside world or by inter- 
nal physical and chemical changes begun before 
birth and continued automatically after birth by 
their own inertia or by new stimulation from the 
external world. There are as yet no phenomena of 



50 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

self-activity ; there is no mind action or soul action, 
— merely reflex action. Much of this action is 
necessary to the continuance of life, — physical life, 
if there be such a thing separate from the life of the 
soul. But to the teacher there is a deeper signifi- 
cance here than has yet been suggested. Nature 
seems to have taken care, through heredity, for the 
preservation and continuance of what may be called 
the vegetative or purely animal life of the child. 
Has it also prepared the way for the child's soul to 
get possession of this physiological apparatus for 
spiritual uses, — for its own development? The 
answer to this question will be clearly seen after a 
slight discussion of the organization of nervous mat- 
ter, showing how it is serviceable as an instrument. 
A nerve fiber is not quite so simple a thing as 
the descriptions in previous pages would indicate. 
Only such descriptions were given there as were 
necessary to the understanding of the processes 
then being considered. Closer examination of nerv- 
ous matter shows a nerve fiber to be a collection 
of neurones, or nerve cells, with prolongations in 
many directions and of varying lengths. From 
many of these neurones there are further prolonga- 
tions of nervous matter, filamentous in character, 
called de7idrites by later physiological psychologists. 
A succession of neurones, with their more or less 
well-developed dendrites, placed in a line constitute 



SELF-ACTIVITY 51 

a nerve fiber, so called. Neurones in a nerve fiber, 
even with well-developed dendrites, do not quite 
touch each other, being always separated by in- 
tervening tissue called neuroglia^ through which 
nervous impulses must be conducted from the par- 
ticular dendrite concerned in one neurone to the 
nearest dendrite in its successive neurone in the 
fiber. Since each neurone has many dendrites, reach- 
ing in various directions as well as in the main 
direction of the fiber, there is always danger at first 
that instead of a straightforward transmission of the 
nervous impulse along the line of the nerve fiber 
most nearly concerned, there may be diffusion of 
the impulse somewhat indiscriminately to neurones 
in other fibers, leading to other brain centers (or 
nervous centers). This diffusion of nervous energy 
is precisely what does happen in the newborn child, 
resulting in many seemingly irrelevant movements, 
not directly related even to the preservation and pro- 
longing of the physical life. It will be found, how- 
ever, that nearly all of them more or less indirectly 
affect physical health, by stimulating the circulation 
of the blood and by increasing chemical action in 
the blood and in the tissues. 

Their greatest significance, nevertheless, is in 
an entirely different direction, namely, as furnishing 
the beginning for that course of nervous organiza- 
tion which the soul takes up at this point to render 



52 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the body, especially the nervous system, the marvel- 
ous instrument which it becomes for the expression 
of the soul's activities of thinking, feeling, and 
choosing ; and incidentally through such expression, 
to lay the foundation for the soul's own development 
in its moral attitude toward the universe. 

It has already been seen that physical and chem- 
ical forces, operating before birth, through the life 
of the parent, have begun an organization of some 
portions of the nervous system. Thus at birth the 
child has a fairly well-developed set of afferent 
nerve fibers and the beginning of some efferent 
nerve fibers. Constant repetition of stimuli has in- 
creased the capacity of these nervous fibers to 
transmit nervous impulse by causing a growth of 
dendrites from each neurone in many directions, but 
mainly in the direction which nervous impulse has 
oftenest traveled. The neuroglia intervening has 
had its susceptibility to nervous impulse greatly in- 
creased by constant transmission of such impulse 
in definite directions. Organization of nervous mat- 
ter has thus far proceeded by growth of dendrites 
from neurones into and through the neuroglia to- 
ward other dendrites extending from neighboring 
neurones, thus increasing -the probability that nerv- 
ous impulse will be transmitted definitely along 
the line thus created, rather than along lines in 
which the dendrites are shorter and the intervening 



SELF-ACTIVITY 53 

neuroglia less sensitive to the language of the 
nervous impulse. The whole process before birth 
has been under the direction of the life influence 
of the parent, so that gradually the trend of nervous 
transmission is set along lines which will best min- 
ister to the well-being of the organism. Neverthe- 
less at birth these lines of transmission are not so 
well settled but that much seeming waste of nerv- 
ous energy still takes place through diffusion. 
The further organization of the nervous system 
must now be delivered over to the physical and 
chemical forces already at work within the system, 
to the forces of the external world acting on the 
sense organs, and to the self-activity of the infant 
soul which is even now seeking to gain the mastery 
of the body in order to make it serve spiritual as 
well as physical interests. It is not here meant that 
the soul is consciously seeking thus to use the 
body, but only that its very self-activity is, under 
motive whenever that shall come, the reason for 
asserting its supremacy over matter instead of sub- 
mitting longer to the direction and control of outer 
forces. It was seen in the preceding pages that the 
infant soul is fitted out at birth with sensory ap- 
paratus connecting it with the material world ; and 
that soon the young child will begin to aid itself 
in this direction by gradually assuming control of 
these physical organisms and processes. 



54 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

It is precisely this self-activity of the soul hereto- 
fore described which comes now to its assistance. 
Reasonable provision has been made for the con- 
tinuance and improvement of the physical life, and 
but little for the soul life. The reason is obvious. 
Physical conditions and forces cannot compel atten- 
tion or action from the soul. The soul's action 
must be self-action, — none other could be soul 
action. What these physical forces have done is to 
arrange an apparatus which will attract the atten- 
tion of the soul, and which, becoming more highly 
organized through soul action, may thus serve as 
the medium of expression, directing and correlating 
the soul's activities so as to make them adapted to 
soul life in a material world. And this is precisely 
what we find these physical forces have done. A 
partial organization of some parts of the nervous 
system has already been accomplished at birth. 
These same forces continue their work after birth, 
no longer so closely under the surveillance of the 
parental influence, but ready for more definite con- 
trol by the soul. Continued and insistent repetition 
of these physical forces, through sense organs, is 
steadily making more and more definite and effi- 
cient the lines of transmission of nervous impulse 
through afferent nerves, through the various lower 
nervous masses, such as the spinal cord and the 
ganglia of the sympathetic system, and through 



SELF-ACTIVITY 55 

certain portions of the brain mass itself. More and 
more easily and definitely do these influences pass 
through these brain centers and out to organs of 
motion. 

As yet the main mass of the true brain has been 
scarcely affected by these early acts of organization. 
Being physical and not mental, — not intelligent, — 
they have pushed themselves along lines of least 
resistance rather than along intelligently chosen 
paths of progress. But when the soul begins its 
work of trying to know and appreciate the external 
world it intelligently chooses the portion of the brain 
mass which it will train to its service. 

If the student will refer to the page on which we 
discussed the process of reaching sensation^ and re- 
fresh his memory upon that topic, keeping in mind 
this intervening discussion upon organization of nerv- 
ous matter, he will be in condition to follow the 
discussion of the process of perception as based on 
sensation. It will be remembered that sensation is 
a blending of knowledge and feeling, an awareness 
of molecular action in the gray matter of a brain 
center caused by a nervous impulse transmitted 
from a sense organ. As sensation it has no meaning ; 
it is not related distinctly to anything nor discrimi- 
nated specially from anything ; it is not at all inter- 
preted, nor is it referred by the mind to any cause 
nor attached to any object, except in the vague way 



56 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

indicated above. The moment that the soul, being 
more and more noticeably solicited by continuous 
and persistent repetition of the sensation, begins of 
its own accord to study the sensations, it is forming 
or gaining a percept by acting intelligently upon 
the sensation. 

There is a logical order in which these interpre- 
tative acts occur, but the time difference is so slight 
as to be imperceptible. However, when the series 
is really completed a percept is formed. The per- 
cept consists of the tracing of the sensation back to 
its causes sufificiently to identify the new knowledge 
(percept) as a mental correspondent to an attribute 
of an object which, through one of the sense organs, 
was able to cause the sensation. This is the way in 
which we get our percepts, — as nearly direct knowl- 
edge as we ever get of the external world. 

At first perceptions are vague, as sensations are 
vague at first, and for a similar reason; but there 
is an added difficulty in perception, rendering first 
perceptions more vague than first sensations. This 
obstacle is the fact that the mind, in its efforts to 
interpret, — to put forth self-active efforts to know, 
— has no organized nervous medium through which 
to act. Brain cells are susceptible to mental action, 
as influence, but are wholly unorganized in relation 
thereto; that is, they are untrained for this serv- 
ice. It will be seen, therefore, that the first efforts 



SELF-ACTIVITY 57 

of the mind are more or less diffused instead of 
being focused directly upon the sensation till it can 
be understood. 

It is now well known, however, that all intellec- 
tual effort changes the organization of the brain 
matter it tries to use. Therefore the portion of the 
brain which the mind tries to use in these first 
efforts to interpret or know, gradually changes its 
constitution. Its neurones change shape and throw 
out amoeba-like extensions in definite directions, 
dendrites grow out as fibrous extensions of the neu- 
rones, tending toward those growing out from the 
adjacent neurones, till at length a better medium of 
communication has been established for the trans- 
mission of a new nervous force generated by incip- 
ient thought. And when the channel of discharge 
has been well established and the tendency to diffu- 
sion has been overcome, efficiency is slowly obtained 
by concentration on the sensation studied. 

Through the first months of babyhood and the 
first years of youth these efforts at organization of 
new areas of the brain are taking place during every 
moment of waking life. As purposive effort grows 
stronger the channels of connection grow more effi- 
cient and perceptions grow clearer, the improvement 
in each case being infinitesimally small as one act, 
but becoming noticeable at the end of millions of repe- 
titions. So the child grows slowly to the knowledge 



58 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

of the attributes or qualities of things. These vari- 
ous forms of knowledge are called percepts. His 
gradual bringing of these attributes under the rela- 
tions of cause and effect, whole and part, space and 
time, and into objects — that is, into ideas which 
are the counterpart of the objects from which they 
come — is a slow and prolonged process; but it 
does not differ materially from that described in the 
formation of a percept. The mind has gradually 
taken possession of a portion of the brain, organ- 
ized it for definite use, and made it serve a pur- 
pose in the soul's advancement. This it has done 
through its primal attribute of self-activity or power 
of initiative. 

It is to be remembered that the self -active nature 
of the mind and its supremacy over matter through 
its power of initiative are just beginning to manifest 
themselves. The soul has even greater conquests to 
make. There are large areas of the brain as yet but 
slightly in use, and the soul has large possibilities 
before it in the development of its own powers of 
thinking, feeling, and choosing. As soon as the soul 
begins to learn the meaning of sensations and to 
interpret them into percepts, thus becoming ac- 
quainted with the external world, it finds many of 
these objects serviceable to itself in various ways. 
Sights, sounds, tastes, etc., gratify capacities of feel- 
ing ; the intellectual exercises of interpretation are in 



SELF-ACTIVITY 59 

themselves pleasurable ; and an actual soul life, here- 
tofore unknown, begins as the human being becomes 
for the first time aware of the self as distinguished 
from the objects of its study. 

The next chapter, on Self-revelation, will have 
for its theme this development of the soul through 
spiritual uses of the external world, — that is, revela- 
tion of the soul to itself. Here it is enough to see 
clearly that the soul has the beginning of the need 
of expression. The motives to companionship arise 
with dawning self-knowledge, and companionship 
can be based only on some mode of communication. 
Some method of expression — some kind of lan- 
guage — is needed to begin companionship. There 
is much evidence to show that the first language 
developed was a gesture language. We have seen 
that without the intervention of the soul, spasmodic 
action of the limbs of a child, particularly of the 
hands and arms, is already arranged for through a 
nervous system partially developed at birth. And 
we have also seen that these spasmodic, uninten- 
tional actions readily take place under the stimulus 
of physical, chemical, and physiological forces. The 
soul's initiative is noticeable only when some cor- 
relation of these hitherto purposeless actions is 
attempted in order to accomplish intended results. 
The sensations of touch and sight, coinciding in 
time and place, solicit strongly the attention of the 



6o EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

soul. Soon sight sensations alone suggest motion 
for the purpose of supplementing these sensations 
with touch perceptions, resulting in attempts to 
direct or control the motion of the hand. But before 
this new force — soul initiative in the form of resolve 
— can do its perfect work upon matter and thus 
express itself through motion of the hand (or other 
organ) it must have a medium of nervous matter. 
Portions of the brain are already susceptible in a 
degree to such influence, and, by successive attempts 
of the soul to express itself through motion, have 
become a trained instrument for the transfer of this 
soul force, as other parts of the nervous system were 
previously fitted to transmit nervous force originated 
in sense organs by external or physical forces. 

Of course this training of the brain for soul uses 
in self-expression is of a finer kind than the other, 
as soul force in the form of resolve is a finer sort of 
force than is light or sound or any other of the 
forces manifesting themselves through the senses. 
All forms of self-caused mental action, such as feel- 
ing or thought or resolve (volition), are veritable 
soul forces, capable of causing motion in nervous 
matter, such as the brain. The word " causing " is 
used here for lack of a better word ; it need raise no 
philosophical discussion which its use philosophically 
might inaugurate. The nervous impulse thus origi- 
nated by mental action is transferable to muscle 



SELF-ACTIVITY 6 1 

quite as readily as are the nervous forces caused 
from external stimuli. But this new kind of nervous 
influence is directive in character, not merely spas- 
modic or automatic ; therefore, as soon as it is trans- 
mitted to muscle the tendency is toward regulated 
or correlated action, since the stimulus has in it the 
elements of purpose and accomplishment. Thus all 
further organization of the brain coming from men- 
tal action will always tend to make such brain 
matter a better and better instrument for the trans- 
mission of purpose or volition to all muscles that 
need to work together toward the accomplishment 
of an end. And when such purpose is self-expres- 
sion through motion, the very muscles required for 
such motion are all animated by the same stimulus 
coming from the mind itself. Under such stimulus 
the muscles work together, and the result is regu- 
lated or correlated action. For the first weeks, 
months, and years of the child's life the soul is 
engaged in thus training certain parts of the brain 
to become its instrument for the transmission of its 
mandates to muscles everywhere in the body, till 
gradually not only are new motions, previously un- 
known to the infant, inaugurated, but those caused 
by external forces are brought under control. Soon, 
then, the body is dominated by the soul through its 
control of the muscular system, gained by the use 
of the brain which it has trained for its instrument. 



62 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

This training is most clearly manifest in those 
motions which are made for the purpose of self- 
expression, namely, by the hands, organs of speech, 
etc. Indeed, the soul takes such complete control 
of the body in this respect that the latter is but the 
instrument for the constant expression of the states 
of the former. This is accomplished most perfectly 
in gesture and in written and spoken language. 

Some of the most interesting problems in physio- 
logical psychology lie in this field, — the mastery 
by the soul of the organs of speech for purposes 
of complete self-expression. Physiological psycholo- 
gists have been greatly helped in many cases by 
intelligent physicians who have been able, by the 
study of conditions of the brain resulting from 
accident, to give the true explanation of phenomena 
whose causes could not have been reached through 
the ordinary experiments of the psychological lab- 
oratory. In fact, much of the higher organization 
of the brain, under direct control of the soul for 
purposeful uses, is so delicate in its character as to 
elude even the microscope. Many of the actual 
changes brought about in the brain cannot be seen, 
and can only be inferred from other phenomena 
which have been established as facts beyond doubt. 

Many physiological psychologists refuse to be- 
lieve in the existence of a spiritual entity, pre- 
ferring to consider the soul as an aggregation of 



SELF-ACTIVITY 63 

mental phenomena caused by physical forces acting 
through the nervous matter of the body. In its 
baldest phases physiological psychology would deny 
self-activity in all its forms, deny any power of spir- 
itual initiative, and thus destroy all sense of respon- 
sibility in the soul for its own action, overthrow- 
ing at one fell swoop all basis for moral philosophy 
and any recognition of worthiness or unworthiness 
in human living. In this extreme it is sheer fatalism; 
but fortunately for human progress, and especially 
for educational philosophy, the latest investigations 
in physiology itself do not support this view. There 
is now abundant evidence, growing out of the study 
of the brain, to show that some of the finest organ- 
izations that take place therein cannot be pro- 
duced by physical forces, but must proceed from 
some other source. There being certain effects 
clearly found which cannot, by the nature of the 
case, be produced by physical causes, some other 
cause must be supposed, or human thought upon 
the matter must come to a stop. The latter is what 
has happened with the better class of physiological 
psychologists. They have traced out certain de- 
velopments of the nervous system and certain phys- 
iological results in the human body. They have 
also noticed certain concomitant developments of 
mentality going hand in hand with these physiolog- 
ical changes. They have not dared in later years to 



64 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

say that the latter cause the former. Neither will 
they admit that the former cause the latter. They 
prefer to say they do not yet know their causes; 
but they leave one with the impression that some 
day the discovery will be made that physiological 
forces actually cause mental action. They thus 
endeavor to account for mental action without con- 
fessing belief in the existence of any subject ex- 
pressing this mentality. It will be noticed in this 
case that they do not really decline to make a sup- 
position, but merely prefer a physical theory to a 
spiritual one. 

Psychologists who believe in the soul as an en- 
tity, capable, through its own initiative, of gaining 
control of the body for its instrument, do so be- 
cause of two reasons: (i) consciousness reveals 
(indirectly) such a being, the subject of one's own 
experiences, continuous in its identity through these 
experiences; and (2) this is the only theory which 
fully accounts for such soul action as is evidenced 
by even physiological psychology. Since this theory 
of the existence of a self-active soul fully and per- 
fectly accounts for all mental and psychophysical 
facts, and accords perfectly with consciousness, it 
is entitled to full credence until overthrown by 
wider knowledge which may better explain the 
facts referred to above. It is believed by the writer 
that no such better explanation is possible, and that 



SELF-ACTIVITY 65 

fuller knowledge will but more and more clearly 
prove not only the existence of the soul as an entity 
but its self-active nature as well. 

It seems to the writer that physiological psychol- 
ogists have been prone to state physical conditions 
of mental action, and call them causes of the same. 
Physiological conditions invite or solicit mental 
action, but have no power to command or cause it. 
The mind can take advantage of these conditions 
if it chooses, as it usually does. It can also neglect 
or decline to take advantage of them as opportuni- 
ties of mental action, and can perform mental actions 
of quite a different kind from those thus invited. In 
this it proves its existence as an entity, and also its 
own control of itself, by an initiative not originated 
in the physical organism but resident in its own 
nature. All education worthy of the name is based 
on this self-active nature of the mind. All moral 
distinctions rest here. All character development 
has its mainspring here. All claim to kinship to the 
divine by the human rests on this characteristic. 

One more phase of this question seems to need 
explanation before we pass to the corollaries or 
inferences as to educational doctrine and practice 
which are deducible from this discussion. It will 
conduce to clearness, perhaps, to state first the 
series of facts involved, and afterward to give in 
condensed form the proofs for the position taken. 



66 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

It has already been shown that the soul, of its 
own volition, soon after birth begins the examina- 
tion of its surroundings, using its physical organism, 
especially the nervous system, as its instrument. 
Its first attention to molecular action in nervous 
matter of sense organs gives it sensations. Further 
activity results in perception. 

The soul, however, is far from satisfied. It pro- 
ceeds more or less purposefully at first, but with 
deeper intent as it goes on, to discover the mean- 
ings of these things by seeking out their relation- 
ships of cause and effect, of whole and part, their 
similarities and unlikenesses, and hundreds of other 
relationships, — all of which constitute their signifi- 
cance for the soul, their spiritual meaning, their 
possibilities of service or hindrance to its develop- 
ment. In the progress of these mental activities the 
soul goes through a process of self-revelation; it 
finds out its own capacity for pleasure and pain, its 
possibilities of being influenced by motives of in- 
finite variety, and is seized by a powerful desire to 
communicate all this to other souls whom it finds 
in similar mental states with similar relations to the 
world of matter through similar nervous mechan- 
isms. The first successful expression is doubtless 
through gesture, using this word in a broad applica- 
tion. The hand and the face play a large part in 
this early communication from one soul to another 



SELF-ACTIVITY 67 

of those mental states which press for utterance. 
But the crowning activity is reached when speech 
is invented, — as it always is by souls but never by 
animals. For this high function the soul chooses 
certain parts of the brain and trains them, organiz- 
ing them for this purpose. Scientists know the 
exact portion of the brain which is used by the soul 
in interpreting the meaning of sensations, percepts, 
and things ; and likewise the portion specially used 
in oral speech, or in written language, or in any 
other form of self-expression. 

It is a singular fact that while both lobes of the 
brain are used in most elementary actions, espe- 
cially those caused automatically by physical forces 
acting through the senses, such is not the case in 
the higher mental processes and in the actions re- 
sulting from the nervous forces excited by them. 
In these higher mental processes only one lobe is 
used, — generally the one corresponding to the 
most-used hand or the first-used hand in childhood. 
In accordance with the well-known physiological 
fact of the crossing of the nerve fibers leading to 
the brain, this will, in each case, be the left lobe for 
the right-handed person and the right lobe for the 
left-handed person. This is the more easily ac- 
counted for if we remember that the first pur- 
poseful motion of the child is that of the hand. 
The first reactive force arising from soul resolution 



68 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

passes back to the brain through the hand, and 
thus begins that training of the connected lobe for 
further usefulness. When the soul has active need 
of expression and finds that other muscles must be 
affected for this purpose, what can be fitter than 
that it should use that portion of the brain which 
has already received some training for expression. 
As a matter of fact, all resolutions of the soul for 
expression are sent to the necessary muscles for the 
kind of expression decided upon, by means of the 
lobe used first for expression by the hand. Different 
portions of this lobe, however, are devoted to slightly 
different modes of expression, such as oral expres- 
sion, written expression, etc. 

How all this has come to be known is an interest- 
ing story. Not all the psychologists in the world, 
of all varieties, working together, would ever have 
accomplished the wonder. But the trained surgeon, 
called to the consideration of pathological conditions 
of the brain in connection with accidents or with 
nervous diseases, has been able at last to get at the 
facts which render these conclusions certain. At 
first it was chiefly post-mortem examinations that 
gave certain clues; but later the study of living 
persons has enabled us to get at conclusions more 
suggestive because drawn from the living subject. 

Numerous cases have recently been found where 
individuals have continued to live after certain 



SELF-ACTIVITY 69 

accidents to the brain have occurred. In some cases 
the breaking down, through disease, of brain tissue in 
certain locaHties has been followed by definite men- 
tal disturbances, tending to substantiate the conclu- 
sions above stated. Sometimes a clot of blood forms 
in a particular spot in the brain, rendering that 
portion of the brain useless, temporarily or perma- 
nently, as an instrument of the mind. A clot of 
blood in the oral-speech region has been known to 
make a child ten or twelve years of age unable to 
speak a single word. His mental or soul condition 
remained practically the same, but one means of 
expressing that condition had been cut off. He 
could write his mental state, — his knowledge or his 
wishes, — but he could not speak it. His difficulty was 
not of the soul, but in the instrument. In the case 
of this particular child, however, by slowly training 
the same region of the other lobe of the brain, he 
gradually learned to speak as well as before. He 
had been delayed a little in training a new instru- 
ment, but in no definite way had his mental state 
been otherwise disturbed. Other cases have been 
known where the power to interpret has been lost 
by a clot of blood upon a definite portion of the 
brain devoted to the use of the soul in its think- 
ing. In the young this power is slowly regained by 
the training of the corresponding part of the other 
lobe. 



70 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

In all cases of mature persons these accidents are 
irreparable, the brain substance having grown be- 
yond its susceptible stage. Hundreds of these cases, 
illustrating every phase of mental action referred to 
in these pages, are recorded in medical works and 
books treating of some phase of physiology or psy- 
chology. They all point to one definite conclusion, 
— that the nervous system in man is the immediate 
instrument of the soul in its self-development in an 
environment of matter. That these definite higher or- 
ganizations of selected portions of the brain could not 
have been brought about by physical forces is plainly 
shown by the fact that both lobes of the brain are 
alike open to all physical forces ; and as these forces 
are unintelligent, they could in no way have selected 
one, but would have organized both. An intelligent 
something selected the part best fitted in each case 
to serve the purpose intended. This choosing or 
selecting can be done only by an entity which pos- 
sesses initiative as well as intelligence. These latest 
discoveries in physiological science give no encour- 
agement to the materialist. They all point to the 
spiritual nature of man, his body being the neces- 
sary means of the soul's advancement while it lives 
in a world of matter. 

The author of this book is not especially con- 
cerned here with any particular theory of the origin 
of the soul, nor is he desirous of discussing needlessly 



SELF-ACTIVITY 71 

the relation of the soul and the body. He is trying 
rather to state such conclusions upon these and 
other disputed points in psychology as seem sup- 
ported by reason and reputable authority, espe- 
cially so far as these matters are relevant to a correct 
theory and the successful practice of education. In 
most cases the appeal has been made to concurrent 
testimony of many eminent scholars and special- 
ists. This is more particularly true in reference to 
the physical nature of the human being, for here 
the facts, so soon as discovered, are susceptible of 
direct proof. In these cases it is mostly a matter of 
well-equipped laboratories and skillful and patient 
observers; but on the mental or spiritual side of 
the subject there is less opportunity to present 
matters to the senses for proof, or to exhibit conclu- 
sive evidence to persons unaccustomed to deal with 
the facts of the mental or spiritual life in their 
habitual thinking. In such cases it has been the 
author's design to appeal to the consciousness and 
the reason of the reader. The attempt, then, is so 
to state the facts of mental life as to rouse in the 
reader's mind an appreciation which makes him feel 
that he has himself had similar experiences, or so 
to state the facts as to elicit from the reader the 
comment, " This seems reasonable." When both con- 
sciousness and reason can be made to bear upon 
the same point, the proof seems doubly strong. 



72 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

Up to this point the claim to self-activity as 
the primal characteristic of the soul, and therefore 
the most important element of the mental life, — the 
very corner stone of moral responsibility, — has been 
supported by evidence furnished almost exclusively 
by physiological psychologists. Step by step they 
have proved in their laboratories this intimate rela- 
tionship between the physical and chemical forces 
of the world and the nervous tissues of the body. 
Little by little they have discovered the way in 
which these physical forces have organized the nerv- 
ous system so that it will convey the nervous im- 
pulses, which these physical forces have produced 
in the nervous tissue, through neurone and dendrite 
to the brain. They have shown that these nervous 
impulses, or the molecular disturbances in the brain 
which they produce, are the conditions under which 
sensations and perceptions take place, although they 
have not dared to go so far as to call either of these 
activities 2, physical process. Having admitted them 
to be mental in their nature, they still try to explain 
them, however, by physical causes ; or, if they admit 
the existence of mind, they sometimes try to con- 
vince themselves that mind is nothing but the sum 
of these physically caused mental phenomena, and 
not in any case a thing in itself or an entity. A 
sufHcient answer to this line of materialistic reason- 
ing is the simple statement, verified at once by any 



SELF-ACTIVITY 73 

honest student out of his own experience, that our 
mental life proceeds precisely as if it were the re- 
sult of intentional, purposeful planning and execut- 
ing by an entity or thing whose capacities might 
be determined by examining the nature of the phe- 
nomena themselves. The conclusion is, that what- 
ever acts like an entity (or thing) is probably one. 
However, therefore, the soul originates or however 
it is constituted, the process of education must take 
it as it finds it, and proceed to educate it toward the 
highest and noblest results which its nature permits. 
When we find the mental life to consist of activities 
appropriate to a self-active spiritual being, we may 
well conclude that we have to do in education with 
just such a being. 

The proof of this self-active nature of mind is 
within the consciousness of each one who, having 
reached the age of discretion, has examined carefully 
the working of his own mind. Each of us has found 
himself deciding courses of action for himself, know- 
ing all the time full well that he could have chosen 
differently if he had cared to do so. 

This seems an appropriate place to refer to a 
curious line of argument sometimes offered by those 
who do not believe that the mind has any power 
of self-action (self-activity), any actual power of in- 
itiative, any freedom of will. The argument is a 
specious one, though its fallacy is easily detected by 



74 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

an acute thinker, even if he is not a trained logician. 
The argument referred to is that the mind is in no 
sense free, because its every act is controlled by 
necessity of some kind ; that what is commonly called 
choice is merely giving way to the strongesi motive. 
If the mind must follow the strongest motive, it is 
under force or necessity to do so, and cannot be 
free to choose. 

The fallacy lies in the unwarranted meanings put 
into certain words. As a matter of fact, the very 
essence of motive is an appreciation of value, — a 
felt value. The highest motive then is the highest 
felt value, and this depends entirely on the mind's 
own action in appreciating worth or value. The 
very essence of freedom, or initiative, is to be able 
to appreciate so deeply certain values that desire of 
attainment will cause choice and consequent action. 
To say that the mind is compelled or forced or 
necessitated thus to choose, is to misuse these 
words, that is, to change their meaning during the 
argument. 

The real fact is that the mind is so constituted 
that it naturally perceives distinctions of value and 
naturally and voluntarily chooses highest values, — 
not because it must, pushed by an outside force, 
but because it is urged by its own nature or con- 
stitution to choose the highest good. This kind 
of compulsion is of the very nature of freedom, — 



SELF-ACTIVITY 75 

precisely what we mean by the power of initiative, 
and exactly what is meant in the best use of the word 
"self-activity." The mind is free or self-active be- 
cause it can and does respond to motives. Education 
can change its sense of values, thus changing the 
power with which different things appeal to it as 
motives, and in this way it can eventually change 
the course of conduct. By a continuation of this 
process character is produced and established. The 
great possibility of education rests on this nature 
of mind, that it is compelled by its own nature and 
not by an outside force to choose in accordance 
with the strongest motive. The compulsion of a 
motive is a leading and not a driving force. Since 
the mind yields to the stronger motive, and since 
the mind itself makes all its motives and determines 
which is the stronger motive, the mind does it all, 
and is therefore free at every step. It is of the 
nature of spirit or mind to be thus free. Hence 
every compulsion of the mind's own making is but 
further evidence of the mind's natural and inborn 
freedom. 

The argument just referred to against the exist- 
ence of actual self-activity (that is, innate freedom 
to choose one's course of action) is of the same kind 
as the argument we often hear against the same 
condition in the case of Deity himself. It is thus 
said that since by his very nature God is self-active, 



76 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

then he is compelled to be self-active, and being com- 
pelled to be self-active, he is not free to be self -active. 
Using other words, the argument would be stated 
thus : God is free by his very nature ; he is therefore 
compelled by his very nature to be free. Therefore 
since he is compelled to be free he is not really free. 
Of course one easily sees the fallacy in this logic; 
the meaning put into some of the words varies in 
the different propositions, — a fatal defect in any 
reasoning process. 

The same argument might be thus stated with 
reference to the human soul. It is the nature of the 
spirit to be free. The soul is spiritual by its nature 
and is therefore compelled to be free ; hence, being 
compelled to be free, it is under compulsion and 
cannot be really free. It is to the credit of most 
sane people that their common sense leads them 
easily to see the fallacy in such argument. But a 
few who delight in verbal gymnastics have in all 
ages preferred to believe the conclusion reached in 
this way. 

In referring in previous pages to the evidence of 
the consciousness that each one has of his own essen- 
tial freedom, the intention has not been to assert the 
unqualified truthfulness of all reports given in con- 
sciousness. There is need of the same care and 
scrutiny here as is needed elsewhere to discern the 
false from the true; but it may well be asserted 



SELF-ACTIVITY 77 

that when due tests have been applied to the reports 
of consciousness, the final result is nearer to absolute 
truth than any other knowledge attainable by human 
means. Even all the knowledge which the scientist 
reports so dogmatically with reference to the spiritual 
world must be reported through consciousness before 
it becomes knowledge. Some materialistic scientists 
have so far been misled by their prejudices as to 
assert that knowledge of the external world is more 
reliable than knowledge of the mental world as re- 
ported to each one in his own consciousness, over- 
looking the fact that in both cases we have only the 
report of consciousness as the final proof. 

If, therefore, all the evidences of self-activity were 
lost, each one of us could, if his attention were suffi- 
ciently called to it, trust his consciousness as to his 
own essential freedom. So fully will he trust his 
consciousness in the matter that he will continue 
to plan what he intends to do and apply means to 
accomplish his own plans, thus proving practically 
that he believes in his own sufficiency to plan action 
and carry it out to the accomplishment of his own 
ends. Furthermore, he acknowledges that he is re- 
sponsible by his very feeling of worthiness when he 
has accomplished worthy things, and by his feeling 
of remorse when he has done wrong. Thus does 
the practical action of each person overthrow the 
neatly planned sophistry of the professional logician. 



78 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

Consciousness gives still further evidence of this 
universal sense of freedom of initiative, in that every- 
one knows directly, through consciousness, that after 
he has chosen a course of conduct in accordance with 
the stronger motive he may be challenged or dared 
by another person to change his course of action. 
He knows full well that it rests with himself whether 
or not he will consider this dare or challenge to con- 
tain a stronger motive than the one governing his 
original decision ; and he knows also that, if he likes, 
he may change his course to coincide with the chal- 
lenge. Thus he knows himself to be free even to the 
extent of power to be whimsical if he so chooses. 

It is to be carefully noted that what is meant here 
by choosing a course of action does not imply also 
the carrying out, in physical ways, of the action 
chosen. There may be physical reasons why this is 
impossible, but this fact does not affect in any way 
the mental act of deciding. It is this mental state, 
and not its outside accomplishment, that chiefly 
affects moral responsibility and determines to a con- 
siderable extent the moral condition of a person. 
This power we have here been describing — the 
power of free mental choice — is of supreme impor- 
tance in the education of the future citizen and man, 
since he is thus to be shown that it is entirely pos- 
sible for a person to live a pure life in the midst of 
surrounding vices. One does not need to choose the 



SELF-ACTIVITY 79 

surrounding vice to be his substantial good, but 
may go on indefinitely affirming his constant rejec- 
tion of it, thus preventing it from becoming any 
part of his mental condition. It is true that one 
may also give way and choose the evil instead of the 
good, but this negative freedom is only the natural 
correlative of the freedom to do right; and all this 
but offers the opportunity for education to give such 
enlightenment as shall lead one to value rightly the 
good, the true, and the beautiful, and thus to use 
these as motives in life, while seeing clearly the lack 
of permanent value in the evil, the false, and the 
ugly. The chance to fail is but the opportunity to 
succeed in a high and worthy way, — a way so high 
and worthy that it could not be had at all except as 
the correlative of the chance to do wrong. 

The self-activity, then, treated in this chapter is 
the power of the mind (or soul) to respond to mo- 
tives, thus leading to freedom in choosing, and so 
to moral responsibility. This is the fundamental 
controlling fact of all psychology, so far as psycho- 
logical principles are helpful in education. All 
right methods of teaching grow out of this prin- 
ciple and its correlates. School organization, so far 
as it is to be helpful in carrying forward the edu- 
cational process, must properly regard the self-active 
nature of the child. Self-government can be realized 
politically and socially only by persons whose powers 



8o EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

of initiative have been developed and trained and 
regulated by high motives or ideals. 

With this principle kept well in view, education 
resolves itself into the self-active process of becom- 
ing acquainted with the world of matter and the 
world of spirit ; of so sensing the values of the differ- 
ent elements of knowledge thus gained that right 
motives may be discerned and set up as ideals; of 
responding to ideals until conduct is rightly directed 
and the sturdy qualities of perfected character are 
produced by the soul's fine activities. 

The following chapters will deal with the theo- 
retical and practical problems involved in such an 
educational process. 

In closing this chapter on Self-activity it may be 
said in general that modern education, and especially 
the " new education " so called, has always theoreti- 
cally claimed to be founded on the principle of self- 
activity. But in application there has been wide 
divergence of practice among teachers. A doctrine 
so fundamental is peculiarly susceptible of misinter- 
pretation. A few instances may be mentioned here 
by way of illustrating both the fundamental character 
of the principle and its liability to misapplication in 
practice. 

First, perhaps, in importance and prominence is 
the kindergarten. From the time of Froebel till the 
present day it has been claimed as a fundamental 



SELF-ACTIVITY 8 1 

doctrine of kindergarten philosophy that the self- 
active character of the child should be safely guarded. 
The methods of the kindergarten are carefully 
planned to develop rather than dwarf the child's 
power of initiative. Everywhere the child is to be 
led to appreciate values so as to prefer the good, the 
true, and the beautiful ; he is then to be allowed 
frequent opportunities to exercise his power of choice 
and to execute for himself his own plans. But the 
ever-present kindergartner sometimes allows her own 
energy and her own initiative to take the place of 
these same qualities in her pupils, so that she be- 
comes each day more and more a necessity to the 
children, both in their work and in their play. While, 
therefore, the kindergartner succeeds in making the 
kindergarten a very popular institution, she some- 
times gradually enervates the power of real initiative 
in the children. From day to day they become more 
helpless if left alone, and more and more dependent 
on some one for plans and for stimulation toward 
their execution. While children so treated progress 
happily and rapidly in many ways, they are moving 
steadily toward a day of tragedy, — a day when cir- 
cumstances will require that they shall be self-active, 
both in planning and in executing. Such children 
call constantly for stimulation of an artificial nature, 
and are slow to become interested naturally in occupa- 
tion of the hour through a sense of accomplishment. 



82 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

Much of the criticism against the kindergarten, espe- 
cially by teachers of primary grades, is accounted 
for by the fact that many kindergartners have failed, 
as described above, in the practical application of 
this principle of self -activity. It goes without saying 
that the true kindergartner so applies this principle 
as to make the children day by day more self-reliant, 
inventive, and successful. 

A similar misapplication of the principle of self- 
activity was common a few years ago in primary 
and even in intermediate grades. I refer to what 
was known as the " development method " of teach- 
ing. In this method the teacher always took the 
lead in each new topic, using questions in such a 
way as to lead the child gradually from known facts 
to the related unknown facts of the new lesson. The 
teacher's question supplied the trend of thought, 
the grade of ascent, and the height of the step to be 
taken at each advance ; while the child was required 
to do sufficient thinking to discern the relations in- 
volved and to attain the desired knowledge. It was 
the proud boast of the teacher that he could teach a 
child new truth in this way without telling him any- 
thing; it was implied that the child should think it 
all out by himself. The claim was set up that this 
method of teaching led the child to logical habits of 
thought, and that he remembered more completely 
and perfectly what he learned in this way than he 



SELF-ACTIVITY 83 

did what was merely told him by his teacher. But, 
strange to say, it was later discovered that pupils 
taught exclusively by this method gradually became 
helpless when deprived of the framework or form of 
procedure furnished by the teacher's questions. To 
preserve and develop the child's power of initiative, 
he must be required to invent ways and means of 
doing his mental work, and so become more and 
more self-helpful and self-reliant as his education 
proceeds. 



CHAPTER III 

SELF-REVELATION 

In the preceding chapter self-activity is spoken of 
as the primal or distinguishing attribute of a human 
being. Sharp distinction is there drawn between 
forms of partial self-activity, as seen especially in 
plant life, and the full form exhibited in the human 
spirit. It was shown that moral responsibility attaches 
itself to that form only which is characteristic of the 
human being. Partial freedom, of the kind found in 
plants and animals, can give no ground for moral 
responsibility. The plant must begin action when 
the conditions are supplied, and must confine its ac- 
tions within the limits prescribed by the conditions. 
The human spirit has the power to begin its actions 
when appropriate conditions are supplied, but it 
also has the power to refuse (actively) to abide by 
the limitations suggested by the supplied condi- 
tions. It has the power, indeed, to act in some 
other way than that for which conditions are sup- 
plied, in this case furnishing for itself its own causes 
of action. 

Even solicitation from the outside may not secure 

compliance from the self-active, free spirit. The very 

84 



SELF-REVELATION 85 

suggestion from outside sources for a special course 
of action may be regarded as reason for an opposite 
course. The soul sets its own value upon reasons or 
conditions offered, and proceeds to act as it will in 
view of these self-estimated values. This constitutes 
action from motives or ideals, and such action is 
always self-action, — free ; that is, induced by motives 
self-created as opposed to action compelled by an 
outside force. This value, which becomes motive, is 
not a reasoned value primarily, at least, but rather a 
felt value. Whatever presents a felt value to the 
child will influence through motive his subsequent 
or consequent action. Since the human being is free 
to judge values, he is free to accept or reject motives, 
and therefore still free in his action. The teacher is 
able to teach — that is, to direct to a degree the mental 
activities of the child — by presenting values in such 
a way that the child feels and perceives such values 
and surrenders himself freely to them as motives to 
action. The teacher usually speaks of this process 
as " creating interest." It is a fundamental condition 
for all teaching, however much it may have been 
abused and parodied in the modern school. The true 
teacher soon becomes aware that the human soul 
may be solicited, encouraged, stimulated, urged, and 
even challenged to action, but never commanded or 
compelled. This perfect freedom, it will be kept in 
mind, belongs to the spiritual nature only of the 



86 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

human being. The physical part necessarily partakes 
of the limitations belonging to matter everywhere. 

It has now been sufficiently pointed out that the 
human infant is potentiality — possibility — self- 
activity — supplied with a body as a means of con- 
nection with the material world. This constitutes a 
human being at birth. It is true that there are limi- 
tations placed on the spirit by its connection with a 
material body, but there are compensating advan- 
tages, at least, for spiritual life in a world of matter. 
Indeed, we cannot conceive how a spirit would live 
at all in a world of matter without this means of con- 
nection through its nervous system and the sense 
organs. At any rate, if such existence is possible, it 
has no place in a discussion of the educational process 
in this world of combined material and spiritual con- 
ditions. It has already been stated that the education 
of the human being is to be attained only through 
its own free action in thinking and feeling and choos- 
ing, — the only kinds of action of which a soul or spirit 
is capable. It has already been commented upon, too, 
that whatever of training is needed for the body, in 
order that it may become a better instrument for the 
use of the soul in human living, may properly be 
included in the scope of education. In fact, it is 
inconceivable that the spirit should secure perfect 
education for itself in the world without correspond- 
ing development of the body. Certainly many of the 



SELF-REVELATION 87 

most educative influences brought within the soul's 
reach come through bodily organs and functions. 

One cannot know what solicitations to action may 
be offered to a pure spirit, that is, a spirit without a 
body ; but the first solicitations that come to a human 
being to begin its actions of thinking, feeling, and 
willing, come through the sense organs of the body. 
Through the eye bright colors and beautiful forms 
solicit the action of the mind or soul, and in due 
season, and of his own volition, the child reacts upon 
the objects which thus make their appeal. Moving 
color seems, first of all, to make such vibration or 
disturbance of nervous tissue as to secure the atten- 
tion of the infant soul. We can scarcely believe that 
the first attention is intentional in any fair sense. 
However, all the mental actions of an infant are 
vague, as all the actions of its body are evidently at 
first entirely reflex. But many repetitions of the 
solicitation result in the soul's getting a felt value 
(or pleasure) from the action of attention. Here 
is the first appearance of motive in the life of the 
young human being. The felt value tends to secure 
the vaguest kind of attention, which in its turn 
increases the felt value of the experience and gradu- 
ally changes the latter somewhat by introducing the 
first trace of distinction between the soul which 
feels and the something which offers the occasion 
of the experience. 



88 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

The first soul activities are therefore vaguely inter- 
fused processes of feeling, thinking, and choosing, no 
one of them sufficiently differentiated from the others 
to be as yet definitely discriminated and named. 
Much repetition increases the intensity of such 
action, until there is for the moment a perceptible 
predominance of some one of these three elements 
of soul action. As the intellectual element grows 
more intense and clearly marked, some knowledge 
of the object is obtained ; as feeling (usually, at this 
stage, pleasure or pain) increases and grows more 
intense, the motive value or pleasure value of the 
object becomes plainer and plainer. As these two 
processes grow stronger and stronger there is greater 
and greater reason for giving more definite attention, 
until soon the attention itself takes on a distinctively 
voluntary character, and the act of choice has been 
fully exercised. The child has chosen to give atten- 
tion as solicited. 

The union of these three processes in this way, 
through many repetitions, serves to develop the first 
vague sense of self-consciousness, that is, conscious- 
ness of self as separate from or different from other 
things. The sense of value which is the basis of this 
distinction is of course exceedingly vague at first ; but 
many repetitions, through the same sense or other 
senses, develop this power to discriminate and esti- 
mate value through feeling (probably at first mainly 



SELF-REVELATION 89 

in the form of sensation) very rapidly. Through the 
senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing, as well as sight, 
the child is solicited to give more and more of his 
active attention to the objects whose attributes yield 
themselves to him in the combined process of feeling 
and knowing; till at last he begins to discern the 
line of demarcation between the objects which thus 
attract his attention, and himself, the sentient subject 
of such experiences. There can be little volition till 
this distinction has been established, and pleasure is 
recognized as a state of self or myself. The distinc- 
tions referred to here are extremely vague for many 
months, and in some cases for years, of the life of 
the young child. 

In Book XLV of " In Memoriam," Tennyson 
gives the best poetic statement of this psychological 
development in self-consciousness that I have ever 
seen in print: 

The baby new to earth and sky, 

What time his tender palm is prest 
Against the circle of the breast, 

Has never thought that " this is I " ; 

But as he grows he gathers much, 

And learns the use of " I," and " me," 
And finds " I am not what I see, 

And other than the things I touch." 

So rounds he to a separate mind 

From whence clear memory may begin. 
As thro' the frame that binds him in 

His isolation grows defined. 



90 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

With this clear demarcation between one's self and 
the other things of the universe, self-revelation may 
fairly be said to have begun. This stage marks 
a marvelous advance in human development. In fact, 
this is the first significant hint of personal immor- 
tality — a being, distinct in its individuality, capable 
of mastering its environment so as at last to create 
for itself a spiritual environment to which it may by 
constant striving keep itself forever fairly well adapted. 

Self-revelation, however, is not fully developed, — 
only just begun. We have already seen two elements 
of the soul's activity which make possible self-appre- 
ciation, in the high sense in which the word is used 
here. These are (i) an intellectual discrimination 
between the self and other things, based on a differ- 
ence in their attributes ; and (2) a felt sense of value 
to the soul in these various things, when their attri- 
butes have been found out. Not only are things 
found to be different from the self as individual 
things, but some of them are found to be helpful to 
the soul and others hurtful to the soul, as it exercises 
its powers upon them. This point needs to be clearly 
understood. Whenever the real life of the soul — its 
real life development as a spiritual entity — is helped 
forward by its knowledge of the attributes of things, 
these attributes, or the things furnishing these attri- 
butes, are recognized as being helpful to the soul 
which occupies its thoughts and feelings with them. 



SELF-REVELATION 91 

But if thinking and feeling these attributes retard 
the soul's true development, then the soul soon 
learns to consider these things as self-hurtful. This 
is another way of saying that the soul's real develop- 
ment is dependent upon what it thinks, how it feels, 
and what it chooses or does. 

It is, of course, a long time before the soul has 
any clear distinctions or strong convictions in regard 
to such matters. It is during this early stage of 
development of the sense of real values — the percep- 
tion of what is really and truly helpful to the soul in 
its own education — that the teacher and parent have 
their greatest opportunity. The most casual remark 
upon such matters by one who is loved and respected 
by the child will often turn the balance in favor of or 
against certain standards of value about which the 
child is more or less doubtful. This is especially true 
in the province of the conscience and as regards all 
standards of conduct, but it is also true in other 
processes of thought and action. 

However, nature early takes a hand in developing 
this sense of spiritual values for the child, and it is 
merely the privilege of parent and teacher to be co- 
workers with nature in these early years. The child 
lives his physical life in the midst of potent forces, 
each, through his sense organs, seeking to gain his 
attention. Every color, form, taste, odor, fragrance, 
smoothness, roughness, hardness, softness, or other 



92 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

attribute mastered through the senses soon comes 
to be appreciated by the soul as answering a felt 
spiritual need. This in turn becomes a self-revelation 
of the soul to itself, disclosing its capacities or pos- 
sibilities of enjoyment. As perception grows clearer 
and as these attributes are seen to inhere in objects, 
the objects themselves become of interest to the 
child. He seeks acquaintance with them till he finds 
what attributes they possess and to what uses for 
himself he may put them. The very enjoyment of a 
beautiful color or a significant form or a graceful 
motion may in itself prove to be a matter of soul 
growth by answering a felt need of the spirit for 
nutriment. But it does more than this, — it makes 
the person conscious of his own power of enjoyment. 
Every new case of a gratified need of the soul is a 
new self-revelation, until little by little the capacity 
for enjoyment is exercised in so many ways and 
finds its gratification in so many things that the ex- 
ternal world becomes to the child the unlimited 
source of countless pleasures. It is devoutly to be 
wished that the school might keep this sane and 
helpful relation between the child and external 
nature unbroken, for the enjoyment of nature is a 
part of the great life development, which in a semi- 
conscious way his whole being is urging forward. In 
this way the child has begun to conquer his environ- 
ment for spiritual uses, and the sense of pleasure 



SELF-REVELATION 93 

and increasing power gives him an elation of mind 
which is of higher grade than the satisfaction of 
hunger or thirst or any other purely physical need. 
The material world is beginning to answer a felt 
need of the soul. 

The child does not occupy his entire time, however, 
in mastering the external world of matter. He early 
gets pleasure by sharing his experiences with others, 
and the joys of companionship open other possibili- 
ties of himself as the subject of activities which 
gratify a felt need — a spiritual need of the develop- 
ing soul. In companionship both with those of his 
own age and with teachers and parents the child is 
finding out what others think, and how they feel 
and act, and what their standards of conduct are. 
The teacher and the parent are important parts of 
the child's environment, exceeded in value only by 
the companionship of other children. Real growth 
is forwarded more rapidly and healthily by right 
companionship than by any other force that the 
school can organize and use. It is true that acquaint- 
ance with the external world is important, but chiefly 
as a means to intelligent participation with other 
persons in the institutions of civilized life. In this 
companionship the child feels his own life expanding, 
and soon he comes to value most highly the inspi- 
rations to right living which come to him from this 
source. He begins to feel himself an individual, a 



94 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

personal force, and he exults in the growth which 
comes to him naturally through his spiritual mas- 
tery of the world. His own free activities furnish 
him with interests and motives. It is the business 
of the school to keep his interests diversified and 
his enthusiasm unabated. 

Thus far we have traced the growth of self-activity 
into self-consciousness in its initial stages only. The 
world is wide. From the condition of awakening 
self-consciousness, or the beginning of self-revelation, 
to the condition of a wise, thoughtful, sane, serene, 
well-poised, capable man or woman is a long jour- 
ney. Completely developed self-consciousness, that 
is, complete mastery of the universe for use in life 
development, would include: 

1. A knowledge and appreciation of all the capaci- 
ties and possibilities of culture with which a human 
being is endowed. 

2. A knowledge of all the attributes of all the 
other things in the universe. 

3. A knowledge of all the ways in which any or 
all these attributes of all the other things in the uni- 
verse could be made to minister to the welfare of 
the human being. 

Our courses of study will naturally include but a 
small portion of this all-inclusive schedule, but a 
human being grows in self-revelation precisely as he 
works toward the point here indicated. He may well 



SELF-REVELATION 95 

be called a person of liberal education, however, 
before he has proceeded far along the way. 

As an illustration of the manner in which self- 
revelation grows as our education proceeds, — as we 
master the world of knowledge, — and how life de- 
velopment proceeds as intelligence increases, let us 
study for a moment the ways in which a child is 
affected in succeeding stages of growth by so simple 
a thing as an orange. The child's mastery of what 
the orange means in its fullest ministry to his life 
development takes many years, proceeding as edu- 
cation or circumstance brings the subject in its suc- 
cessive phases before his attention. Perhaps, at first, 
the moving orange attracts his infantile attention. 
The motion of the yellow sphere wins his notice, 
and the color gratifies a need of his spirit, giving a 
real pleasure, though probably a slight one. There 
is without doubt an artistic value in orange color, 
which makes it attractive even to an uneducated 
eye. The shape, too, meets a need of the soul, giving 
a sense of completeness which is restful. By touch 
he gets the idea of the roughness of its surface. The 
contrast with other surfaces develops discrimination, 
and the exercises of comparison and contrast are a 
source of growing power and efBciency in the child's 
mental life ; thus, since all normal mental action is 
in itself pleasant, the result is gratifying. By taste 
he gets an answer to a felt need, which at this age 



96 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

is no less strong than if the need were purely a 
spiritual one. When the orange is found to satisfy 
hunger and thirst, its usefulness is further established, 
and it is placed in the child's category of things 
which answer promptly to felt needs of his nature. 
These gratifications are increased through the years 
as he finds the orange healthful as food. This fact 
raises questions of permanent supply, and methods 
of culture interest him. His thought of other people's 
needs will turn his attention to the transportation 
and distribution of the fruit. The beauty and fra- 
grance of the flower gratify aesthetic tendencies un- 
touched by the attributes previously named. His 
interest rises high at the sight of a well-cultivated 
orange orchard, and the delicate beauty of flower 
and tree easily suggests spiritual beauties, which 
adorn the inner life. As his spiritual life develops 
and love comes to typify its highest, purest, and 
holiest moments, he sees the significance of outward 
beauty as the sign of inward purity, and he recog- 
nizes the fitness of the sentiment which places the 
orange blossom in the bridal wreath. Thus the 
orange has ministered to his spiritual development 
from the time when he met it on the lower plane of 
the senses till it entrances him with visions of happy 
lovers and bridal processions. 

However, as we have seen before, the child is not 
limited to the material world for stimulation of his 



SELF-REVELATION 97 

mental or spiritual life. He has the whole field of 
companionship with personalities of his own kind, 
with the resulting sympathies and inspirations that 
belong to human intimacies. The most significant 
things in the world are persons. Nature study will 
fail of its best results in the schoolroom or else- 
where if it be not made the means of a better inter- 
pretation of humanity and a fuller measure of human 
sympathy. We visit the Old World not chiefly for its 
scenery, though much of it is beautiful, but rather 
because it is there that human history has been made. 
We go there to see the places where men and women 
have lived and loved and struggled and conquered. 
It is the human element that makes places sacred. 
And so it is at home. Everything else is chiefly 
means for making it possible for people to associate 
together in the most fitting way. The child is edu- 
cated through companionship. He meets and asso- 
ciates with a person who, through his actions and 
his speech, manifests certain attributes. If these 
attributes, in the degree shown, impress the child as 
worthy, or as desirable, he straightway changes his 
standard to suit the new knowledge, and he is power- 
fully stimulated to emulate the characteristics noted. 
By his own efforts the child has an additional reve- 
lation of his own powers as he finds himself attain- 
ing some degree of the admired characteristics. His 
own need, gratified, is transformed into a new power. 



98 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

and his soul has grown. In other words, he has 
entered upon a new hfe on a higher level. 

If he meets some one who sympathizes with him 
justly and deliberately, he instantly recognizes this 
sympathy as a universal need of the human being, 
and finds himself capable in time of responding in 
like manner to others. His whole nature thrills as 
he witnesses here and there sympathy with the un- 
fortunate, and he soon establishes bonds of connec- 
tion with others through this universal element of 
human companionship. When he sees acts of real 
kindness he is quick to yield admiration, though he 
has never before been fully aware of the human 
need in his own soul. Every element of noble char- 
acter, as it finds fit expression in his presence, 
strikes a corresponding note of approval, gives a 
sense of gratification, and develops an honest pride 
in the nobility of our common humanity. 

Of course, I do not mean that all these things 
are consciously worked out in the mind of a child 
from a single set of suggestions. I mean rather that 
unconsciously at first, and semiconsciously at best, 
these effects are produced, till little by little a child 
comes into an understanding of his human inherit- 
ance. He has had the possibility of his nature 
revealed to himself, and has thus far become self- 
conscious, using this term in its best sense. 

It goes without saying that while an environment 



SELF-REVELATION 99 

of noble persons will make this revelation of nobility, 
an environment of immoral associates will reveal 
the possible depth of evil which is the natural correl- 
ative of the noblest human nature. It is the purpose 
of the school to furnish an appropriate environment 
of persons as well as of things. 

The foundation has now been laid for a discussion 
of the doctrine of interest as a motive for education. 
The discussion, especially of mediate interest, will 
trench a little upon the theme of our next chap- 
ter, but it is thought better to include a full dis- 
cussion here than to divide the topic between two 
chapters. 

We have seen that the soul grows steadily in the 
appreciation of value in objects as its knowledge of 
their useful attributes increases. This felt or ap- 
preciated value is the basis of interest, as the term 
is used in education. Literally, we are interested in 
a thing when we believe it concerns us. We find 
out that it concerns us when we discover that its 
attributes are such as will gratify some element of 
our nature. We are more deeply interested if, with 
immediate gratification caused by the object, there is 
present with us an expectancy that this gratification 
will be prolonged or enhanced by our continued at- 
tention to the object, either from the contemplation 
of attributes already discovered, or through new 
ones yet to be disclosed. While this state of present 



lOO EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

gratification and the expectancy excited are both in- 
ternal, or subjective to the mind feeling them, they 
extend outward to the object whose attributes cause 
them. We are then said to be interested in the 
thing whose attributes cause the subjective states of 
pleasure and expectancy. The things in which we 
may thus become interested are as numerous as are 
the objects of the physical world outside us and of 
the mental and moral world within us. But the in- 
terest itself is a subjective thing, — a felt gratification 
or a felt expectancy. The gratification is two-sided 
in a way, being partly the gratification coming from 
the satisfying of a felt need of the nature, and partly 
the gratification of a natural desire for action of all 
normal powers. This very practice which the mind 
has, with its intellectual power, in finding out the 
attributes of an object, yields a kind of gratification, 
— that which follows the right exercise of any 
capacity or power. 

To repeat, then, interest as a state has three 
elements : 

1. Gratification or pleasure due to normal action 
of one's powers in investigation. 

2. Gratification of a felt need of the soul by the 
attributes discovered in objects. 

3. A feeling of expectancy that continuation of 
the investigation will prolong or enhance the grati- 
fication named. 



SELF-REVELATION lOi 

Therefore, when I say that I am interested in a 
thing, I mean precisely that my mind, through some 
of its powers, is apprehending one, or more, of the 
attributes of the object; and that this attribute, 
through being thus apprehended, is giving satisfac- 
tion to me ; and also that there is in me an expect- 
ancy that the object will, through this or other of 
its attributes, continue to afford me pleasure. To 
illustrate : Let a horseshoe magnet be placed before 
a child who has heretofore known nothing of its 
peculiar capacities or attributes. At first sight the 
object has no special interest for him. Why? Be- 
cause those attributes of the iron which become ap- 
parent on first notice are not by their nature adapted 
to gratify in a satisfactory way any of the child's 
sensibilities. The color is not particularly pleasing ; 
in size, shape, or weight it does not gratify any sense 
of wonder nor any delightful fancy of the soul; it 
yields no pleasurable sensations to any sense; it 
satisfies no longing aspirations; it appeals to no 
sense of order in the universe, no feeling of the sub- 
lime, no impression of novelty even. Although the 
capacity to be impressed or gratified is resident in 
the mind, and these common attributes of the iron 
are known by the mind, none of them is adapted to 
start up the feeling of gratification. There is, accord- 
ingly, no interest felt. But this piece of iron has not 
yet manifested all its attributes, because as yet no 



I02 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

condition has been fixed which would allow or cause 
it to do so. Now place some iron filings on the 
table and pass the magnet near or over them. The 
magnetism manifests itself as a power drawing these 
filings to the magnet and causing them to adhere with 
considerable tenacity. Here is an attribute which 
by its own character is fitted to minister to the 
wonder-loving sense of the child, to his innate love 
of order, to his fundamental notion of cause and 
effect, to his own feeling of personal power, and 
withal to his sense of pleasure in the unexpected. 
At once, on beholding this strange power in so 
unpromising an object, the sense of pleasure begins 
and a state of interest is developed. The feeling, 
wholly internal to the child, is a self-gratification, 
but it is extended outward and connected to the 
wonderful power of the magnet as its cause. 

These gratifications are, in the main, pleasures. 
Indeed, the pleasurable element is always present 
with the expectancy, in true forms of interest, so far 
as this state of mind is available in education. It is 
in this respect to be carefully distinguished from 
those states of fear or terror which fix the attention 
and develop states of expectancy of other than pleas- 
urable gratifications. In true interest the action of 
the mind is solicited by the object whose attributes 
cause the gratification, and thus attention is caused 
through interest. Interest and attention then react 



SELF-REVELATION 103 

upon each other, every added degree of attention 
disclosing new attributes which increase interest, 
and each added degree of interest soHciting and 
increasing the attention. 

The element of gratification which attends the 
normal activity of one's powers or capacities is 
founded on nature. It is the pure pleasure which 
always attends proper action of normal and healthy 
organs or faculties, whether physical or mental. This 
is a law of nature. The organ or faculty is made for 
certain uses, — the eye for seeing, the ear for hear- 
ing, the hand for handling, the muscle for contract- 
ing or relaxing, the intellect for cognizing and 
reasoning, the sensibility for loving and hating, the 
will for deciding. Each power or faculty, physical 
or mental, has its appropriate function, is adapted 
to the doing of some special kind of acting. The 
health, happiness, prosperity, development, and satis- 
faction of each power all lie in doing naturally, fully, 
and freely that which it is adapted and intended to 
perform. A complete state of interest contains all 
three of the elements named above. A state of en- 
thusiastic interest has all three of them to a high 
degree. The playfulness of children rests about 
equally on all these sources of pleasure. Every 
faculty of the child, — his very muscles, his eyes, 
ears, fingers, toes, his intellect, his sensibilities, — are 
all in such natural and harmonious relation to one 



I04 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

another and to his environment that each movement 
answers to a felt need of action, and every element 
of knowledge serves a use in satisfying a capacity of 
enjoyment. In all competitive games the exercise is 
usually in itself agreeable ; but a higher sense of en- 
joyment, hence a deeper interest, centers around the 
gratification of the native desire to excel, to conquer, 
to be first among one's fellows. The boy's absorption 
in the game lasts so long as the exercise in itself 
continues to give pleasure or the hope of enjoyment 
of victory remains to lure him on. 

Action for the sake of action, that is, action as 
pure enjoyment, is a characteristic of infancy and 
childhood. Action for the sake of a purpose is the 
characteristic of youth and manhood, — the result of 
education and a mark of culture. In the infant, 
action is almost or quite automatic, — certainly with- 
out conscious purpose, — in most cases, even, caused 
by external forces, and therefore without even con- 
scious satisfaction. A need of the physical system 
may be met, but not a felt need. The child has as 
yet no felt interest. Soon he awakes to the pleasure 
of action both of body and mind, and then he be- 
comes aware of the fact that action answers to a 
felt need of himself, is a method of self-expression, 
and hence interesting because thus satisfying. Soon 
this action of body and mind, especially of the 
mind, secures for him the attributes of things, — the 



SELF-REVELATION 105 

qualities of food, the rich colors of beautiful clothes, 
or flowers, or the sky, — and a response to a felt need 
of the soul produces satisfaction. At this point the 
second element of interest is introduced, namely, in- 
terest in things because their attributes have a felt 
value — give an appreciated answer to a need of the 
self. As this element increases, the enjoyment of 
mere action, while perhaps not growing less, is cer- 
tainly becoming relatively less noticeable. At any 
rate the enjoyment of the knowledge itself as it 
answers to the need is capable of so great develop- 
ment that it soon becomes the prominent element. 
Thus it is that we become interested in things, in 
the actions of others, and in whatever furnishes at- 
tributes that serve the uses which give pleasure or 
satisfaction. We may now be said to have interests, 
that is, things which furnish us satisfaction, with 
which we like to concern ourselves, which attract us 
and solicit and receive our attention and call forth 
effort under tension of the gratification which these 
things produce, and the expectancy of continued 
gratification which they promise. 

In all this development of immediate interest 
there is little conscious direction of effort toward an 
end or ideal, but rather the spontaneous undivided 
action of the whole soul under the inspiration of 
present satisfaction. This present satisfaction is of 
three kinds, as already described, namely, pleasure 



I06 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

of normal action of our powers, gratification of the 
sensibilities through the enjoyment of the attributes 
of things, and expectancy of continuance or advance- 
ment of the gratification. All of these are imme- 
diate. There is no lapse of time between the action 
and the enjoyment of such action, that is, the enjoy- 
ment is in the action itself ; in other words, there is 
no lapse of time between the appropriation of the 
attribute and the pleasure which such appropriation 
gives. The whole self is bound up in the acts and 
the enjoyments. The person has found himself — 
has expressed his immediate nature in these very 
acts which have yielded him his natural satisfaction. 
While, as we have seen, interest as a state or 
condition is always internal, we have also seen that 
it invariably extends itself out toward, and expends 
itself upon, some object, — some definite recipient, 
embodying the attributes which first gave the grati- 
fication and which now develop expectancy. When 
the number of things in which one thus feels an 
interest has enlarged, through more extended knowl- 
edge, the number of one's interests has correspond- 
ingly increased. Hence it is manifest that one's 
range of interests is somewhat definitely related to 
the scope of his knowledge, since it is impossible 
that he should feel interest in anything upon which 
he has never employed his powers, or whose attri- 
butes have never gratified any need of his mind. 



SELF-REVELATION 1 07 

It therefore follows that so far as he extends his 
acquaintance with things, he enlarges the probability 
that he will discover more attributes which furnish 
him enjoyment, that he will consequently increase 
the number of his interests, and that finding himself 
in touch with more of the elements of his environ- 
ment, he will be enabled to live more richly and to 
appropriate to his own gratification a larger share 
of the things of the universe. 

Many writers, both in this country and in the Old 
World, have recently laid great stress upon the proc- 
ess of enlarging the range of interests as a part of 
education, to the end that the educated person may 
know life on many sides, may be less dogmatical 
and more liberal ; in fine, that he may be broad- 
minded, seeing things through the magnifying glass 
of a large and rich experience. But there is always 
danger of a narrow interpretation of what consti- 
tutes true interest. In many cases teachers ex- 
pend their entire thought upon the limited scope of 
immediate interest, and that restricted to material 
things. It would seem sometimes from this state of 
the case as if the whole work of education were to 
be restricted to finding what will please the child 
and then assisting him to gratify his present pro- 
pensities. A moment's reflection will show us how 
utterly unworthy this view of education is. The very 
possibility of education itself lies in the capacity to 



lo8 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

take on a new habit of mind, to create new ideals, 
and in them to find the capacity for the develop- 
ment of new powers of enjoyment. With these new 
capacities come new possibilities of gratification, — 
the possibilities of establishing new lines of interest. 

The mark of civilization is the power to appre- 
ciate and use what can be of no interest to the 
savage. The end of education is not to leave man a 
gratified savage, but to develop him into an enlight- 
ened and ennobled human being. To do this his 
trend of interest must be changed and the range 
of his interests enlarged. Thus it is not alone the 
business of the teacher to find out what will interest 
the child, but rather to try to interest him in that 
which is worthy of his capacities and destiny. 
Doubtless the process must begin with present in- 
terests, but it must surely terminate in the devel- 
opment of a set of interests that are worthy of an 
exalted being, born in the image of God and de- 
veloped into a fitness for association with noble 
personalities. 

We must therefore look to something more than 
the development of present interests; we must 
create new ones and develop new capacities to ap- 
preciate, — new possibilities of becoming interested 
in whatever is worthy in every province of human 
life and human endeavor. This looks to the devel- 
opment of what is technically known as mediate 



SELF-REVELATION 109 

interest, that is, interest in something which is not 
in itself gratifying, but which may be the means of 
obtaining eventually a higher order of satisfaction. 
To appreciate this fully we must, to some extent, 
contrast immediate and mediate interest. Only 
partial treatment of mediate interest will be given 
here, since it will receive further notice in the 
chapter on Self-direction. 

The kind of interest which I have thus far been 
describing is immediate, spontaneous; it wells up 
out of the spirit like the waters of a copious foun- 
tain ; it comes directly from the gratification which 
things give to us personally, and centers itself upon 
the things whose attributes cause it. The child who 
should live his childhood and youth under the con- 
trolling force of interest of this kind would preserve 
his childlikeness, his spontaneity, his heartiness, and 
his openness to the truth. He would contract the 
habit of giving his whole attention wherever his im- 
mediate interest might for the moment lead him; 
work to him would have much of the character of 
play. He might become a great student and even a 
great scholar, but hardly a great character. Some- 
thing more than the following out of immediate 
interest is needed to develop strength and stability 
of character. This immediate interest is supreme in 
the childhood of a human being, but it will hardly 
serve as the proper training for youth and manhood. 



no EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

Were it the destiny of the child always to remain 
a child, and were his environment always what it 
should be, there could be nothing further needed 
than to develop intensely the line of immediate in- 
terest. Were there never any vicissitudes of life 
requiring the exercise of higher virtue and stronger 
application of will, there would be less need to de- 
velop interests of any higher sort. School education 
could then be carried on by making everything as 
attractive as possible, and whatever required study 
or effort could be foregone. It is true that we 
should have no character; in its place we should 
have only vegetative and animal life, — spontane- 
ous, irrational, unrestrained life. 

All of us will agree that manhood and woman- 
hood mean much more than this: they mean the 
development of character and will, the making of a 
thoughtful manly or womanly person out of every 
child. For this we must look to a different kind 
of interest. 

As has been stated in an earlier part of this chap- 
ter, the things in which we may become interested 
are as numerous and diverse as are the objects of 
the outer world and of the inner world. Not alone 
do the things of the physical world serve to gratify 
us, but the things of the mind and heart as well. 
These classes of things differ widely in one respect, 
however, especially when viewed with reference to 



SELF-REVELATION 1 1 1 

the development of interest in them, namely, that 
some of them interest us as ends in themselves be- 
cause we find in them the attributes which cause 
direct satisfaction, while other things are chiefly in- 
teresting to us because we view them as a means 
toward an end of even deeper satisfaction and enjoy- 
ment. It is not strictly true, perhaps, that we feel a 
real interest in these mediate things which are used 
as means ; we rather endure them because they are 
the means to reach that in which we have a true 
interest. 

It is the province of education to transform this 
endurance into genuine interest whenever possible 
(and desirable), and in any case to reduce the degree 
of repugnance by throwing over it a glory derived 
from the ideal which lies in the achievement at the 
end. This involves, as has been said, the gradual 
transformation of the simple, innocent, irrational, 
physically active, mentally volatile child into the in- 
telligent, rational, cultivated person of high ideals and 
developed will ; and between these two extremes lies 
the whole range of our daily teaching, with its neces- 
sary devices, its temporary defeats, its final victories, 
much of it unconscious effort and unconscious tui- 
tion, but as a whole directed by a more or less 
well-understood philosophy of education. 

It is true that many teachers merely fall into line 
with the thinking that some one else has put into 



112 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

courses of study and plans of work. Even when they 
do their best to carry out the regulations, it is purely 
in a mechanical way. To such teachers no philoso- 
phy of education appears either in plan or method. 
There is a favorite theory that all that is needed to 
make the child grow into a cultivated person is time ; 
that the school is simply a safe place of detention 
during the growing period. Without ignoring nature 
as a factor, it is sufficient to notice that grown-up 
children are not greatly superior to young children ; 
and that what we need is a type of man or woman 
capable of coping with the growing complexity of 
modern life. Noble as nature is and salutary as is 
its effect upon the growing human being, its best 
results accrue only to those who, besides obeying 
physical conditions and laws, live in an environment 
of institutions, — a spiritual state of exalted compan- 
ionship with noble human natures, under restrictions 
which are little appreciated and less liked by the 
uncultivated man. In other words, a course of edu- 
cation must comprise a training in a knowledge of 
the humanities and of human institutions, including 
the necessity of law and order in the community, 
and of self-control, none of which things can the sav- 
age man in any fair sense appreciate, and many of 
which are mere means to higher ends, appreciated 
only by cultivated minds made sensitive through the 
long-continued process of refinement brought about 



SELF-REVELATION 1 1 3 

by culture. It is thus a large part of education to 
acquaint the pupil with his spiritual environment, — 
the order of civilization into which he is born, — to 
explain to him the value of the immense wealth of 
his spiritual inheritance, and thus to build up within 
him a standard of life in harmony with his nature 
and destiny. 

To live up to the high standard of life just de- 
scribed, in the midst of a civilization still holding 
many of the crudities and evils of savagery, requires 
that each of us shall daily do many things which in 
themselves are not only not pleasurable, but which 
are positively distasteful. In and of itself much of 
our work is pure drudgery, while much of it requires 
us to bear large responsibilities, to endure petty an- 
noyances, and to do disagreeable things. It is impos- 
sible that we should feel real interest in these things 
through the gratification of any power of ours or 
through any original attribute of theirs. There is 
therefore no motive to do these things unless one 
can be found which is so related to these acts as to 
constitute for the time being a valid, vicarious inter- 
est. The end sought must not only justify but also 
glorify the means. The contemplation of the ideal 
to be achieved must give a pleasure akin to that felt 
in its actual attainment, in order that this pleasure 
shall accompany the doing of the drudgery, gliding 
at last into the glorious realization of the end made 



114 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

possible by the dull drudgery, till the mind can no 
longer distinguish the limits of each, and the whole 
is fused into one glorious sense of accomplishment. 
The transformation is complete when this attribute 
— the relation of means to ends — has been clearly 
seen ; then the means itself, though it was at first 
drudgery, is now loved for one of its own attributes, 
namely, this very capacity to achieve desired ends. 
Immediate interest in the means is now developed 
in place of vicarious or mediate interest. 

We are supported and assisted in this matter by 
the influence of custom, habit, and wont upon our 
physical organs and mental powers. Frequent repe- 
tition sets the organs for easy action in like manner 
again, and disposes the mind to offer less opposition. 
Automatic action frees the mind for a fuller contem- 
plation of the ideal, and wearies it less with the cog- 
nizance of details. We are also frequently pressed 
into unwelcome action by the pain of present condi- 
tions. The hungry person strives to secure food, less 
perhaps for the expected pleasure than from the hope 
of relief from present suffering. In any case it is a 
form of the ideal, — always the real motive in which 
our actual interest centers, — an ideal to be realized 
only by intermediate steps which in themselves have 
no interest till it is developed through the cognizance 
of their value as means. Happy is he who can so live 
that the effulgent glory of his ideal life is thrown 



SELF-REVELATION 1 1 5 

backward till it lights up all the pathway of his actual 
life. His ideal is the magnetic pole of his existence. 
He will drudge for ten hours a day, if need be, so that 
he may found his ideal family life and keep it sweet 
and pure under the shadow of his own vine and fig 
tree. He will march with steady step to the cannon's 
mouth, at the call of his patriotic ideal, counting loss 
of life or limb as a mere incident in the series of 
movements by which civil and religious liberty are 
established. He will counsel together with his neigh- 
bors, foregoing his personal preferences to the end 
that the social order may be unbroken. His interests 
are so set in the best things that he cannot stoop to 
the mean or low, and the fine sense of gratification 
coming from the realization within himself of a high 
grade of manhood compensates for laborious efforts 
and frequent disappointments in external purposes. 
The perfection of culture is to think clearly, to aspire 
nobly, to drudge cheerfully, to sympathize broadly, 
to decide righteously, and to perform ably. The un- 
developed child can do none of these things. The 
undeveloped germ of the possibility to do these 
things is his by native endowment. The province of 
education lies between these two extremes. To un- 
derstand the philosophy of education we must study 
the child as he is, to get our point of starting ; but 
we must also study the possibilities of man, as he 
has expressed himself in history, literature, art, and 



Il6 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

achievement, or we shall fail to get the other point, 
which sets our course and gives direction to our 
educational effort. 

In view of the consideration thus far brought for- 
ward as evidences of growth or development, it seems 
appropriate to enlarge a little upon the higher ranges 
of culture implied as possibilities, but not discussed 
in the elementary phases thus far considered. Initial 
stages of growth imply but do not always illustrate 
what is possible at maturity. Therefore, to study the 
child as he is and to develop methods of education 
to suit his present state or stage of growth, without 
considering what he may become, is a great mistake. 
Before a man can " run the race set before him " to 
the best advantage, the goal must, to some extent at 
least, be known. Before he can even start, advan- 
tageously, the main direction toward the goal must 
be known. So, in education, child study has done 
well to fix the starting place ; but the goal, that is, 
the final or highest aim in education, can be seen 
only by those who give attention to the later stages 
of man's development. What man may do and 
become when he has grown to maturity and has 
developed his powers, has become enlightened and 
has learned to cooperate with his fellows, is of equal 
importance with the facts of his life as a child. His 
power to create literature and art, to formulate 
sciences, to build beneficent institutions, and to 



SELF-REVELATION 1 1 7 

share in the reflex influences for good to himself 
which flow to him through his participation in insti- 
tutional life, — all these things must be taken into 
account as indicating the final goal of educational 
effort. Thus it is that one who would fully under- 
stand the philosophy of education, that is, the nature 
and method of education, must be willing to con- 
sider questions usually included in social and political 
economy,history, science, art, religion, and philosophy. 

The finest figure of speech in all literature, it seems 
to me, representing this possible unlikeness of results 
to beginnings in growth, is that used in Mark iv, 
" First the blade, then the ear, after that the full 
corn in the ear." Who is there, seeing only the corn 
in its blade stage, would ever dare predict the golden 
grain of maturity? Only those who have carefully 
observed every stage of growth, and who have, by 
reflection on the information thus obtained, discov- 
ered something of the law of development, are able 
in new cases to predict the kind of grain, when as 
yet only the leaf or blade is visible. The ultimate 
standard of education, therefore, can be determined 
properly only after a study of man's higher possibil- 
ities and achievements. 

Nor is it any excuse that these final aims of edu- 
cation are difficult to determine. Our attempts to 
find out and record for use the true nature of man 
as an educable being are not necessarily a failure 



Ii8 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

because we cannot know all about man, nor because 
as yet we are unable to prove logically all our beliefs. 
Our knowledge is incomplete rather than necessarily 
wrong. A light but dimly seen is better than total 
darkness, provided, of course, that the light, dim as 
it is, shows the direction toward the goal. No one, 
however, is free to follow a dim light when a brighter 
and better one may reasonably be had. 

These facts are, it seems to me, a sufficient justi- 
fication for continuing the study of man's higher 
nature in attempts to discover something of his des- 
tiny. Only thus can we devise methods of education 
which shall assist him to realize his higher possibili- 
ties. It must be admitted that there are educational 
methods, based on low ideals of man's nature and 
possibilities, which often result in arrested develop- 
ment. Many immediate ends of education (for ex- 
ample, industrial education in the trades) are right 
if they be understood as belonging to the immature 
stage of development, but they become wrong if 
regarded as finalities in themselves rather than as 
tools for use in further or higher development. 

At first these final or higher standards of educa- 
tion seem unrelated to the topic of the growing self- 
revelation of which we have been speaking, but a 
few considerations will, I think, show the close con- 
nection and the important relation. To begin with, 
an appreciation of these higher capacities comes to 



SELF-REVELATION 1 19 

one, if at all, through introspection of one's self and 
observation upon others, with consequent reflection ; 
and each attempted observation, and each conclusion 
or reflection, is validated in consciousness in its very 
cognition or recognition. So soon as the student 
appropriates these higher possibilities as his own^ 
they are seen to be related to him in a self-helpful 
way; and so they are a part of the culture implied 
in widening self-knowledge, that is, self-conscious- 
ness, — the capacity which marks the higher educa- 
tion of the individual. The professional teacher, 
therefore, must ponder these capacities which he 
himself feels, and which are capable of revelation to 
pupils, as a valid part of his study of educational 
standards. When thus thoughtfully reviewed, self- 
consciousness in a cultivated, mature teacher reveals 
the standards toward which he must ever guide his 
pupils. The teacher who sees the highest individual 
development as a possible achievement in each and 
all will never be wholly satisfied to teach in accord- 
ance with lower ideals. 

In a preceding chapter I commented on the recent 
tendency of physiologists to call themselves psychol- 
ogists. Curiously enough, they seem to have been 
led to assume this name because, as they assert, 
there is no psychology (that is, no science of the 
spiritual life), but only physiology (science of the physi- 
cal life). The more reasonable procedure would have 



I20 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

been to deny the realm of psychology, if that seemed 
an essential step, but still to retain the name " physi- 
ologist" as representing the only phase in the study 
of man that they consider valid. The paradoxical 
nature of their position seems to me to consist in 
first claiming to have demolished completely the 
whole structure of psychology, and then wishing to 
be known as physiological psychologists. 

Within the last ten or fifteen years a still more 
absurd attitude has been assumed by a class of physi- 
cists toward the more fundamental conceptions of 
philosophy, which they have declared nonexistent. 
The physicists cover the same ground as former 
philosophies covered, but introduce new tests for 
truth, — the tests applied in laboratories for the facts 
of material science. This attempt to apply physical 
tests to spiritual facts results in ludicrous distortions 
of the truth. Perhaps the most ludicrous example 
of these is the attempt to apply physical tests to 
consciousness, thereby apparently proving that psy- 
chology and philosophy are not valid because con- 
sciousness, on which their facts are based, is not 
reliable. But if the physicist would but take notice 
of the origin of those established facts in the physi- 
cal sciences to which he has successfully applied his 
laboratory tests of counting, weighing, and measur- 
ing, he would discover that all of them were first 
validated in his own consciousness; else how did 



SELF-REVELATION 1 2 1 

they get into his laboratory? It seems to me that 
should such a scientist succeed in proving that con- 
sciousness is not reliable because it does not submit 
itself to his physical tests, he would prove far too 
much for his own comfort. He is like the small boy, 
who, intent on destroying the beauty of a fine tree, 
determined to saw off its most conspicuous branch. 
He did so, but he made the mistake of sawing off the 
branch between himself and the tree. He disfigured 
the tree somewhat, it is true, but his own personal 
appearance was not improved by the incident. 

In all this discussion of self-revelation there is 
always the implication of a self who becomes con- 
scious of his own experiences and thus makes valid 
his growing knowledge. Scientists have attacked 
the validity of this conception of self, saying that 
there is no such thing as a self or entity. It is stated, 
first, that consciousness does not affirm a self; and 
second, that if it did, it would not do to trust the 
verdict, since consciousness is not reliable. The 
second of these contentions has, it seems to me, 
been sufficiently answered by showing that the sci- 
entist is inconsistent in claiming validity for his 
knowledge of the material world, which is just as 
necessarily validated in consciousness as is knowl- 
edge of spiritual facts. That is, facts of science are 
equally dependent with spiritual facts upon con- 
sciousness for their proof of validity. But the first 



122 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

statement needs further consideration. Doubtless, 
technically, there is truth in the statement, since a 
person cannot be conscious of anything except his 
own condition. He cannot, in this strict sense, be 
conscious of any fact of science, but only of his con- 
dition or experience in the knowing of the fact. So 
the scientist is in the same difficulty in getting a 
start with his knowledge of physical facts as is the 
psychologist in getting a start with his knowledge 
of the self. But the important fact in the case is 
that consciousness, in registering an experience, 
always registers it as my experience. Consider this 
fact a moment. 

Were you ever left in doubt as to whose experi- 
ences appear in your consciousness ? Does not con- 
sciousness affirm them to h^your experiences ? Even 
the scientist cannot interpret sensations except as 
he knows them to be his own^ and he constantly 
asserts that he has discovered this or that, still 
affirming the entity as the thinking agent. Precisely 
what consciousness does show me is my experience^ 
and that it is my experience. From this point to the 
affirmation of the spiritual entity that possesses the 
experience is but a single step in reasoning, which 
everybody takes, just as Descartes did; so that it 
is common to speak (as a mere figure of speech) as 
if it were directly shown in consciousness. The fact 
that everybody takes this step in reasoning is shown 



SELF-REVELATION 123 

by the presence in all languages of the personal 
pronoun in the first person. From this universal 
reliance on consciousness as the fundamental means 
of knowing anything, the scientist moves to the 
external world, studying it in accordance with the 
universal laws of thought and the special laws of 
matter ; the psychologist pursues the study of men- 
tal phenomena in accordance with the universal 
laws of thought and the special laws of spirit ; and 
each is entitled to be judged by persons versed in 
the special laws of the special subject as well as 
in the universal laws of thought applicable to all 
provinces. 

The scientist passes quickly from the considera- 
tion of sensations to that part of the subject in which 
the special laws of investigation are counting, meas- 
uring, weighing; and he soon becomes fascinated 
with the accuracy of these tests. His attention is 
easily absorbed by the special laws — those domi- 
nant in the details of scientific study — to the ex- 
clusion of those universal laws of thought which 
condition all knowledge. He is prone to forget that 
the superstructure, however well built, is in the end 
no safer than the weakest place in its foundation. 
The man who built his house on the sands may have 
built as good a house as did the man who founded 
his upon a rock, but the outcome was different in 
the two cases. 



124 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

The brilliant discoveries of modern science dazzle 
us by their splendor and amaze us by their practical 
value; but if natural science has any place in the 
curriculum of the school, it is not for either of these 
reasons chiefly, but rather because the truths involved 
in these discoveries profoundly affect human experi- 
ence. For this reason they do have a place in the 
curriculum of the school, as no well-informed person 
will deny, — least of all the psychologist, who under- 
stands how valid and final are these conclusions, as 
vouched for by consciousness. It is not his place to 
doubt or even neglect the discoveries of the scien- 
tists. He knows that their conclusions, so far as 
they are valid, must harmonize with his own dis- 
coveries or displace them. He knows well that when 
there is a conflict, the best-supported conclusion 
must be accepted till a better one than either is 
found ; but at the same time he remembers that the 
scientist, when he has reached higher ground and 
has expressed his conclusion in a more highly gen- 
eralized form, himself sees harmony where before he 
proclaimed conflict; as witness the numerous cor- 
rections which scientists have had to make as a con- 
sequence of new discoveries. The scientist should 
be the humblest of men, considering the number of 
times he has overthrown his own so-called finalities. 
So, meanwhile, the psychologist re-tests his own con- 
clusions and bides his time till the scientist shall 



SELF-REVELATION 125 

have more fully perfected his researches. The psy- 
chologist is not disposed to call the previous state- 
ment of the scientist an error, but rather to think of 
it as partial knowledge ; and he looks forward to the 
time when the full circle of scientific truth shall be 
seen instead of the small arc which alone is now 
visible. 

The psychologist is usually more tolerant of the 
conclusions of the scientist than the latter is in ref- 
erence to the beliefs of the former ; yet the psychol- 
ogist may well insist that he has as much right to 
his belief as has the scientist to his, when the sub- 
ject of inquiry is one which is subject only to the 
universal laws of thought, or to special laws applica- 
ble in the sphere of spirit. For instance, a recent 
scientist has asserted that science has discovered 
that the living reaction in any one-celled animal is 
the same in kind as that in a single cell of the human 
brain; and that inasmuch as a higher and higher 
grade of reaction has been reached by evolution 
through infinitesimal steps of progress, there can be 
no place between the life force of the amoeba and 
that of the human being where there is any change 
in kind ; and that, therefore, if the spiritual ele- 
ment in the human being is an entity, then in the 
amoeba also the life force must be an entity, instead 
of being, as the scientist maintains, only an attribute 
of the amoeba. The final conclusion, therefore, was 



126 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

that the something which the psychologist calls the 
human spirit is, after all, only a property or mani- 
festation, and not an entity. 

Now, as a matter of fact, this argument is falla- 
cious for two reasons : first, the mode of reasoning by 
which the conclusion is established violates the very 
laws which operate in the province of natural science ; 
and second, it also violates the laws which domi- 
nate in the province of spirit. As to the first, it was 
contended in the argument that since it cannot be 
shown at what particular degree of development the 
energy found in an amoeba changes into self-con- 
sciousness, no such change can have taken place. 
The fallacy in this reasoning is evident when we 
remember that changes in kind quite as great as 
are here supposed, are constantly occurring in natu- 
ral science. For instance, a chemist takes a few 
atoms of hydrogen and a few atoms of oxygen, in 
certain proportions, and puts them first into physi- 
cal relations. In these relations each of these ele- 
ments manifests its own properties. The chemist 
then changes conditions so that the hydrogen and 
oxygen unite chemically. So far as the chemist is 
yet able to report, there have been three kinds of 
change of infinitesimal degrees: namely (i) a change 
in distance, the atoms of each substance approach- 
ing those of the other until they come within insen- 
sible distances ; (2) a change of position among the 



SELF-REVELATION 127 

atoms of the two substances ; and (3) a loss or gain 
of energy. But the chemist admits that he now has 
a new substance with properties unHke the proper- 
ties of either oxygen or hydrogen. He accepts this 
new substance as different in kind from the ele- 
ments of which it is composed, because it manifests 
different properties. He does not affirm that it can- 
not be a new substance because the changes by 
which it was produced from oxygen and hydrogen 
were of infinitesimal degrees. He does not feel com- 
pelled to say at what particular one of these infini- 
tesimal degrees the new substance was formed ; it 
is enough that the new substance is found to be 
new by chemical tests. 

Now, as to the second reason, the psychologist 
accepts the scientist's statement that the life force 
in the amoeba is unconscious, or that it has not yet 
been proved to be conscious ; but the psychologist's 
consciousness affirms the human spirit to be self- 
conscious. If it came from the amoeba through in- 
finitesimal degrees in the development of evolution, 
he does not feel compelled to name the degree at 
which the change into self-consciousness took place. 
He tests the result by spiritual tests, just as the 
chemist tests his result by chemical tests. 

I have already shown that all knowledge must be 
referred to consciousness for its validity; also that 
consciousness reveals my mental experiences and 



128 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

affirms them to be mine; but it also reveals much 
more than this. While consciousness does not directly 
reveal a self as an entity, it does something else 
quite as important, — it reveals directly the exact 
nature and much of the significance of our conscious 
experiences. It is in these revelations, through con- 
sciousness, that the educator must find valid ground 
for the construction of a correct and helpful theory 
of education. This theory will be seen to be grounded 
in the nature of the being to be educated, and it 
will take note of the relationship of this being to 
all phases of thought, feeling, and action; thus it 
will range for its subject matter, as I have already 
said, through the provinces of art, science, litera- 
ture, history and sociology, religion and philosophy. 
Every teacher whose self-consciousness has been thus 
awakened to his own possibilities in these higher 
fields of human experience will try to reveal to his 
pupils some vision of this wider range of human life, 
even while teaching the most elementary subjects. 

I have previously called attention to the fact that 
the ideals or aims of education, to be in any sense 
final, or even in any high degree authoritative, must 
take into account all possible achievements of man 
in his higher spiritual capacity, as involved in insti- 
tutional life ; and that the school studies which refer 
to this phase of man's nature take a wide range, 
including especially art, literature, history, economics 



SELF-REVELATION 1 29 

(social and political), philosophy, and religion. In 
recent years development in the physical and natu- 
ral sciences and their applications seems to have 
outrun or somewhat overshadowed development 
along those lines more definitely founded on the 
spiritual experiences of the human race. There are 
doubtless good reasons for the present supremacy 
of the physical sciences, not merely because of the 
strong appeal which these branches have made 
through their industrial and commercial application, 
but because of the accurate and systematized think- 
ing which such study demands. This attitude does 
not, however, release the teacher from the obligation 
to reveal to pupils their own spiritual possibilities. 
In its organized aspects the complete revelation can 
occur only to the university student, but in its more 
elementary forms it may begin in the kindergarten 
or the primary grades. It has seemed proper, there- 
fore, to discuss here more fully than has been done 
hitherto the exact nature of these higher capabilities 
and their consequent possible achievements, to the 
end that the teacher may see how the humanities 
are of slow development but of supreme importance 
in the self-revelation to the child of his own nature 
and capabilities. 

In opening up this subject more fully, it is to be 
noted at once that many experiences of life cannot 
be defined or even described perfectly to persons 



I30 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

who have not lived through them. All human ex- 
periences, no matter how diversified, are the actual 
blendings of the activities of knowing (in some of its 
various forms), of feeling (in some of its numerous 
variations), and of willing (in some of its aspects); 
but the relationship or ratio of these elements is a 
shifting factor, now more and now less of one or an- 
other factor; or now one and now another variety 
of each. The complexities of human life or human 
experience are made possible by the varying ratios 
and shifting varieties of these three fundamental 
elements of mental or spiritual experience. No one 
of these strands of human experience is ever wholly 
separate from the others, even in its vaguest degrees, 
or even wholly distinguishable from the other two. 
However, one of them may exist in such violent de- 
gree in connection with such slight degrees of the 
others as to seem for the moment separate and dis- 
tinct, or as to seem to be for the time the only element 
in the experience. In such case, however, a close ex- 
amination will always disclose the presence of the 
others in lower or higher degree. The dominance 
of one such line or kind of experience has given 
separate names to mental processes that are really 
complex, though for the moment they seem to be 
simple and separate. In some cases these different 
names for different states are sufificiently clear for 
ordinary description ; but, by the nature of the case, 



SELF-REVELATION 1 31 

kinds and degrees are so lacking in definiteness as 
to leave large place for misunderstanding and full 
opportunity for argument and discussion. 

Moods dominated by thought (or knowing) in 
some of its forms are most exact in their character- 
istics and limits, and are therefore most frequently 
noted and most readily comprehended. They are 
easily analyzed and described, and admit of the 
application of definite terms to an extent utterly im- 
possible with moods dominated by feeling or action. 
Though it has always been possible, therefore, for 
students of mathematics and natural science to reach 
substantial agreements as to facts and their mean- 
ing, artists, philosophers, and theologians, as well as 
men of action, have often lacked a common standard ; 
for science has always been more definite than art, 
religion, ethics, and history. Furthermore, objects of 
knowledge were, first of all, natural or external or 
material things, whether in the individual or in the 
race; so knowledge by the senses came early in 
human experience, as it does now in the individual 
experience of the child. 

The first words were applied to material objects, in 
all languages. In many other and later departments 
of human experience, instead of inventing new ele- 
ments of language, as we doubtless should have 
done if these experiences had been definitive in char- 
acter, we still speak of them metaphorically in the 



132 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

language orginally applied to external matters. Re- 
garding many varieties of deep human experience 
we yet must speak in parables or by means of anal- 
ogies. Throughout the wide range of religious ex- 
perience, and in spiritual things generally, the very 
complexity of human activities, together with the 
shifting ratios of thought and feeling, has often dis- 
turbed inquiries after the truth. In thought, also, 
especially in the act of the mind as it passes from 
the premises to the conclusion, one has been obliged 
to concede the premises as being vague in limits 
and undetermined to some extent in their content. 
In no one thing, perhaps, has this striking peculiar- 
ity of human experience been more marked than in 
the study of that phase of human life involved in the 
experience known by the term " faith." This has been 
thought of in many cases as being purely a matter 
of feeling, and has thus been greatly discredited by 
devotees of scientific thought. The mathematician, 
for instance, has never granted a definite place in his 
calculations to this idea of faith, because the experi- 
ences involved in it do not lend themselves easily to 
mathematical computations. The scientist has even 
denied the validity of faith as a shaping instrument 
of human aspirations, because he too has become in- 
fatuated with the thought of experiments, especially 
in their mathematical forms of computation. In 
these later days mathematics and natural science 



SELF-REVELATION 1 33 

have seemingly formed a compact or a close corpo- 
ration, since the field of science has proved the best 
application for the abstract science of space and 
number. The fact is that faith is not wholly feeling, 
but is a complex of thought, feeling, and will, feeling 
being perhaps for the moment dominant, and will 
being as nearly passive as that experience may ever 
be. But the true nature of faith will never be under- 
stood except when one appreciates that it is merely 
an extension of thought transformed into feeling 
and tinctured with will ; and therefore that faith 
never arises without having been preceded by special 
thought. 

It is perhaps well to notice that in all the regions 
of inquiry where thought itself cannot go, except by 
slow and painful advances, the human spirit still in- 
quires and wonders and investigates. The confi- 
dence begotten in scientific laws, through our study 
of them in determinate provinces, easily leads one to 
extend them beyond the realm of thinking experi- 
ence, resulting in certain experiences of confidence 
or conclusive belief which are of the exact nature of 
faith. In so far as this faith is mere confidence, it is 
feeling ; but in so far as it is related to the operation 
of law and is the conclusion of reasoning, it is intel- 
lectual in its nature; and in so far as it directs 
aspirations and controls action, it is of the nature 
of will. 



134 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

No more remarkable application in any province 
of thought for this peculiar form of human effort, 
resulting in the transformation of thought into feel- 
ing and will, is perhaps known than that involved in 
one's belief in the universality of the law of gravita- 
tion. The intellectual comprehension of the facts of 
gravitation and of the law governing this force is 
precedent to the belief in its universality; that is, 
there is some quality in this law, some peculiarity in 
its nature, that operates in the human soul to create 
an experience which begins in reasoning but ends 
in a wholly indemonstrable belief. The scientist him- 
self in this, his own province, yields to the confident 
belief, because of the singularly convincing character 
of the knowledge out of which it has grown, though 
he recognizes perfectly the utter impossibility, by the 
very nature of the case, of gathering data which hold 
in them the force of the conclusion. He is com- 
pelled to believe, not by the nature of the facts ad- 
duced, but by the nature of the law or principle 
which seems to be operative among the facts them- 
selves. Men have gathered in this instance enough 
of the facts to suggest to them the law itself. They 
have then tested the law in numerous instances. But 
the scientist is just as certain of his conclusion with 
respect to the instances not yet summoned as he is 
with respect to those in which he has actually found 
the law illustrated and supported. This sort of 



SELF-REVELATION 135 

reasoning and this sort of conclusion are not of the 
kind especially prevalent in mathematics or in con- 
crete science. The conclusion rests rather on a form 
of probable reasoning, but, in the instance cited, a 
form of probable reasoning which transforms the 
element of probability into the element of certainty 
in the conclusion. 

No more striking instance can be offered of the 
exercise of faith by reason of the lack of doubt in 
the conclusion. The same man who, as a scientist, 
gives himself up wholly to the force of such reason- 
ing, may have no similar feeling of faith in many 
practical and religious questions merely because he 
has never studied the facts on which such conclu- 
sions are based. If one has not studied carefully 
enough to have seen with full vision the compulsion 
which lies in these facts and in the laws which they 
obey, one cannot get the force of compulsion in the 
conclusion. One must deeply and definitely have 
lived these experiences through, and must have 
tested their meaning in one's own consciousness. 
Neither will one get such confidence in probable 
reasoning until one has long practiced it and has 
learned to detect the fallacies which so easily enter 
into it through mistakes in the premises on which 
it is founded. 

Now a great many people have never studied them- 
selves. As children they had profound experiences 



136 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

in sensations. These experiences soon led them 
to certain conclusions with regard to the exter- 
nal world. In these same years they were having 
inner experiences in the thoughts and emotions 
belonging to the inner life; but the volatility of 
childhood is not conducive to profound meditation 
on spiritual things. The child is easily led away to 
more practical experiments on material things. Soon 
the young student is taken into the laboratory where 
definite experimentation is made upon the outer 
rims of his sensational experiences ; and having his 
time occupied with this line of work and the mathe- 
matical studies and computations induced thereby, 
he grows a one-sided individual unless his teachers 
— parents and school-teachers in the institutional 
life — take occasion to excite his interest in the 
things which cannot be tested in physical labora- 
tories. He needs to be led to feel not sensations 
alone, but emotions as well ; and to have aspirations, 
and to contemplate ends and achievements of a 
social nature. He needs to have his power to reason 
exercised constantly in that sort of probable reason- 
ing on which the great issues of his inner life rest. 
If a person will give in this way definite attention 
to the study of his own nature, especially to his 
emotions, his volitions, his aspirations, and his hopes, 
he will soon come to have a large body of intuitive 
information which is just as valid as the same kind 



SELF-REVELATION 137 

of information, regarding sensations, from which we 
start in all experimentation in science. Intensely in- 
teresting as this sort of thinking is when once a 
person has mastered its elements, it does not attract 
the child as do those more demonstrative appeals 
through the senses. And reasoning by probability 
rarely gives to young people full confidence in con- 
clusions, because they are as yet unable to determine 
the full nature of the inner experience out of which 
this reasoning grows. 

Another reason why people do not believe more 
fully in the uncertain and undemonstrated is because 
they have never fully distinguished between the 
force of positive as against negative evidence. In 
things which may be seen or handled or proved 
by physical experiment, one easily leaps over small 
gaps in reasoning, and believes; but in more dis- 
tinctly spiritual experiences these intuitions are hard 
to get unless one is a close student of himself; 
and where the evidence requires a fine discrimina- 
tion of spiritual qualities, the mind easily becomes 
clogged with negative forms which block the way to 
belief. This is especially true with regard to the 
facts of the inner life. For instance, many people 
say they have no such experiences as other people 
describe ; and, in fact, they have not, chiefly because 
they have not made the required effort. They do 
not study themselves, nor move themselves to a 



138 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

plane high enough to gain knowledge in this way, 
and on this negative evidence they base their belief 
that there are no such experiences. The positive 
evidence of one actual experience is worth all the 
negative evidence that the ages could produce. It 
is for this reason that progress in the finer elements 
of human living must wait on the poet, the prophet, 
and the seer. 

It is evident that the only way to find out about 
yourself is to study yourself. This must be done 
through intuition. In other words, you must make 
a direct study of what you find yourself to be 
doing. If you find yourself loving or hating the 
ignoble or the noble ; if you find yourself longing 
for all good things and embodying the good in 
action ; or if, on the other hand, you find yourself in 
the grasp of wickedness, you are really getting at 
the question of your own possibilities and your own 
true nature; and out of it all you should seek to 
discover something at least of the possibilities of 
your higher life and of the nature of the eternal 
progress toward perfection. 

It is this very capacity for perfection that makes 
temptation possible. Moral evil does not exist as a 
thing in itself, but is always involved in some ques- 
tion of human action. The human being holds within 
himself a partial revelation of his capacities, and 
these capacities at once show his possible grades of 



SELF-REVELATION 139 

achievement, according as he exerts himself with 
more or less energy. He gratifies this or that capac- 
ity, he finds certain facts in self-revelation as a result 
of such action, and little by little there develop in 
him the first elements of a standard of conduct. No 
matter how elementary this standard may be, it 
makes its appeal to him, so that a certain spiritual 
satisfaction results from conforming to it, and a cer- 
tain degree of remorse attends any failure in realiza- 
tion. Here are the first elements of a moral being, 
— the revelation of a capacity including freedom of 
the will. Variations in the exercise of these capacities 
show differences in achievement, resulting in develop- 
ment, and finally make clear the difference between 
higher and lower ideals as affecting standards of 
conduct. This brings about absolute freedom of 
the individual in choosing action that shall tend to- 
ward the realization of the higher standard or shall 
tend toward the realization of the lower. Moral evil 
is the deliberate choice to do anything less than the 
highest which one's self-revelation has shown to be 
possible for him. 

Now in order that action shall be good, and there- 
fore worthy, it must be voluntary good action ; but 
voluntary good action can only be secured when 
there has also been the possibility of bad action. 
The various standards of achievement brought to 
one's notice through self-revelation furnish the 



I40 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

opportunity for one's choice ; and the self-activity of 
the human being, which is his primal essence, gives 
the human being the power for such choice. Moral 
right and wrong, then, or moral good and evil, come 
into existence not as separate creations, but as con- 
nected with choice and consequent action in the 
human being. In view of these ideals of life and con- 
duct there is no other way in which moral evil can 
exist in the world. The possibility of evil is merely 
the possibility of doing less than one is urged to do 
by his own best ideals or at least by his highest pos- 
sibilities. One must of course include here the con- 
stant attempt at perfection of these ideals, and the 
impulse to keep pace with the self-revelation of his 
own capacities. It cannot be otherwise in a state of 
existence where all that is good and high and noble 
is finally to be developed. There is no mystery 
about the existence of evil so long as men and 
women have not yet risen to a stage of life in which 
they uniformly choose to do the best they know. 
Remember it is not the evil that is necessary, only 
the possibility of evil. Before we have reached per- 
fection it is inevitable that we shall sometimes vol- 
untarily seek to do that which is below our own 
conception of right, but we shall eventually forsake 
evil for good by choosing always to do the best we 
know. Then the possibility of evil will remain as 
now, a positive force in the world to keep us good ; 



SELF-REVELATION 141 

though under such circumstances no one would seek 
to practice it. Be sure, then, that while evil is not a 
necessity, the possibility of evil is ; and until we have 
reached a high grade of perfection this possibility 
of evil will entrap many of us. 

As a matter of fact, it is in these self-revealing 
experiences, furnishing standards of conduct which 
make an insistent appeal to us, urging us toward 
their realization, that a life higher than that of the 
brute becomes possible to us. Bound up with the 
same fact, however, is the further fact that in the very 
existence of this possibility of a life higher than that 
of the brute is involved the possibility of a life lower 
than that of the brute. The temptation to evil is 
always involved along with the inspiration toward 
the good. No animal ever starts a saloon, because 
he drinks for the purpose of satisfying a physical 
need ; and he therefore drinks only to satisfy this 
need. Man associates fellowship of a higher grade — 
human companionship — with his drinking, and there- 
fore drinks not merely what will quench his thirst, 
but what he thinks will promote companionship. 
Again, the beast eats to satisfy his appetite; man 
eats for fraternity's sake, and is liable to become 
a glutton. 

The ethical and religious life, therefore, is a move- 
ment upward on an inclined plane by our own moral 
energy; while relaxation will mean not only going 



142 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

back to the original level of animal life from which 
we started, but on down to the bottomless pit, which, 
figuratively speaking, is the other edge of the inclined 
plane of progress toward perfection. The royal pre- 
rogative of man — spiritual growth toward spiritual 
perfection — is the correlate of possible backsliding far 
down below animal life (unmoral life) to immoral life. 
The method of right progress, then, is first to find 
all the good in yourself and to meditate on that; 
and then, forming ideals of your own goodness and 
out of your very best experiences, to hope on and 
aspire to the best. Become as good as possible by 
doing all that you know now you ought to do, and 
you shall thereby find out what more you need to 
know in order to do the next duty. One step at a 
time is the law of spiritual progress. Those and those 
only shall come to know the will of the Father, who 
do his will as far as they understand it at any par- 
ticular time. Doing God's will is the only means of 
perfecting our spiritual sight or spiritual insight, to 
which we must trust for further spiritual knowledge. 
A constant self-revelation of capacities will give a 
clearer vision of ideals, and these in turn will prompt 
to right action. Right action will again make a 
deeper and more profound self-revelation, which will 
again elevate ideals, and these again will make a 
more profound appeal for right conduct. But this 
seeming circle of activities is in no sense a circle, 



SELF-REVELATION 143 

but rather a spiral, which is merely a new figure for 
what I have just called the inclined plane of spiritual 
progress. 

What I wish to make plain is that faith in good 
things, noble possibilities, high professions, will grow 
steadily with the close study of the best within your- 
self, — your best thoughts, your best resolutions, your 
best actions. You will soon become convinced that 
a being who can have such noble thoughts as you 
find yourself having, such unselfish feelings as you 
find yourself possessing, and do such heroic things 
as you find yourself capable of doing, is per se a being 
of genuine worth. This knowledge of your own 
nature and of the nature of your own powers will 
convince you of the greatness of your spiritual pos- 
sibilities; and while you also discover that there is 
much desirable evidence still lacking, you will find 
your faith in this goodness, your confidence in all 
good things, steadily growing. In the end you will 
come to have faith in yourself as good, and in God 
as the acme of goodness, with all the certainty of 
your belief in the force of gravity, and for the same 
reason ; namely, because you have found out the 
nature of your own self, of your own powers, and of 
the laws of action by which you accomplish your 
ends. You have seen goodness in finite forms and 
can easily extend your belief in it to a high degree, 
— even beyond your experience, even to ideals of 



144 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

God himself. And what I wish to make especially 
plain is that this faith in yourself and faith in God 
and your belief in immortality are just as natural and 
reasonable as your faith in the unproved facts of the 
law of gravitation. It is verified in its essential steps 
by the same certainty of consciousness ; and if you 
have pondered it as long a time and as earnestly as 
you have at one time or another pondered on the 
nature of gravity, you will, by the very structure of 
your own mind, come to a surety and certainty of 
faith as great as in the latter case. 

Furthermore, as you find yourself growing more 
and more like your conception of God himself, as it 
is your privilege to do, you will more and more fully 
understand God, and more and more you will become 
able to have communion with him, as you have already 
become able to have communion with your human 
friends. Then such communion will give you refresh- 
ment of spirit, just as you receive inspiration from 
companionship with your dearest friends ; and it will 
be known to you by the same tokens of satisfaction 
as come from association with them. In this way 
your belief in the good, and in God, will become a 
faith which it will be impossible for the adversities 
and trials of life to shake. And just here is the true 
basis for a belief in individual immortality. The first 
condition for individual immortality is that there shall 
be something worth preserving. I know persons 



SELF-REVELATION 145 

whose natures have become so well developed toward 
perfection that they impress one with a sense of their 
undying capacity for life. They seem cut out for 
eternity, and my highest conception of heaven is to 
be with such and the God who represents in himself 
the infinite perfection of which they are the finite 
conception and illustration. 

Following the self-revelation of capacities in human 
progress, resulting in faith in the goodness and pos- 
sible perfection of one's own nature, and the urgency 
of one's ideals in achieving the best through choos- 
ing the higher course of action, comes the self-reve- 
lation of responsibility. The beginnings of this 
self-revelation occur when one first realizes his free- 
dom to choose among his ideals, but its higher 
stages await the higher development of true insight 
into moral questions. The sense of responsibility is 
a distinctly human trait. No human being can feel 
it with any clearness or force who does not at the 
same time feel his power to direct his own course of 
action. A brute animal, with no sense of freedom, 
following only his instincts, feels no moral responsi- 
bility. Neither can such a being feel true remorse. 
It is reserved for men and women, who are conscious 
of their own powers, to feel also the need of acting 
up to their possibilities; and for them is reserved 
the right to fall below the proper standard of con- 
duct if they choose. It is a distinctly human attribute, 



146 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

then — this sense of obligation on the one hand to 
do right, and on the other the feehng of regret or 
remorse for conduct which does not measure up to 
our ideals. 

Like all other capacities of the human soul, this 
power to feel that if we choose our own course of 
action we are accountable to some higher power for 
the results of such action, is susceptible of cultivation. 
In the first place, although the feeling itself is native 
to all of us, the particular form which it will assume 
in any case is dependent on education. In no other 
human faculty is there more difference among men, 
due to its culture or lack of culture. In the second 
place, one's feeling of responsibility or accountability 
is quite dependent on the precedent recognition of 
one's free agency. No one is responsible for the 
results of an action which he is compelled to do, nor 
can he really feel remorse for such results. He may 
feel sorry, but he cannot rightly feel guilty. It is 
true that one may become guilty by allowing him- 
self to be compelled, which is but another way of 
consenting to the wrong; and this again is but 
another way of choosing inaction when positive 
action is demanded by the circumstances. 

Many people strive to free themselves from the 
sense of responsibility by merely wishing for the 
right, when circumstances call for positive action. 
Many pray fervently enough, " Thy will be done on 



SELF-REVELATION 147 

earth as it is in heaven," without feeling the conse- 
quent necessity for offering themselves as active 
agents to see that God's will is done upon earth by 
at least a few people. One is reminded in this con- 
nection of the experience of the aged negro who 
prayed that the Lord would send him some poultry 
for his Sunday dinner. After the lapse of several 
Sundays without any answer to his special pleading, 
he changed the form of his prayer and asked that 
God would constitute him the agent to bring the 
chickens. He reported that his active prayer was 
soon answered. 

After the sense of responsibility has been de- 
veloped, and a tendency to act in accordance with 
this feeling has been established, there is still great 
need of intelligent direction. Just what things one 
shall feel responsible for, and just what action one 
shall take, — all this is quite dependent on one's edu- 
cation. A large and liberal knowledge of things and 
their relations to human welfare is essential to right 
feeling and action in this respect. A misguided or 
ignorant person may have a deep sense of responsi- 
bility, and may feel a strong moral requirement to 
do the worst of actions, merely because he does not 
really know what is truly right or wrong in the 
premises. In case he refuses or neglects opportuni- 
ties to learn better, and to find what is the true 
nature of such action, his character will be injured 



148 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

to the extent of his neglect. It is through such 
neglect generally that bigotry of every kind is devel- 
oped. All religious persecutions have grown out of 
this misdirected sense of responsibility. When John 
Calvin ordered Servetus to be burned at the stake, 
it was from no lack of the feeling of responsibility, 
but rather from lack of proper direction of his zeal. 
Many of the theological views then held have been 
greatly modified by the larger knowledge of our 
time; and were John Calvin alive to-day he would 
probably rejoice as much in the freedom and liberty 
of modern knowledge as did any of those thousands 
gathered at Geneva on the four hundredth anniver- 
sary of the birth of the reformer. He would doubtless 
feel the same obligation that we feel to act in view of 
the knowledge of our time. While his zeal might re- 
main the same, its direction would be more intelligent. 
To those of us who are teachers this matter of 
responsibility raises a grave question. In modern 
homes children do not feel the sense of mutual obli- 
gation as they were formerly taught to feel it by the 
circumstances of their home life. Then there were 
duties in the home for all, even the youngest mem- 
bers of the family having certain parts of the work 
for which they were held responsible. This share in 
the work of the household developed a trustworthi- 
ness not so well brought out by any substitute yet 
found. I feel that the modern school, called upon as 



SELF-REVELATION 149 

it Is to supply so many deficiencies of the modern 
home, has as yet found no means of developing and 
directing this sense of reciprocal responsibility rest- 
ing on the members of the smaller social wholes, 
like the family and the school and even the immedi- 
ate community; and I greatly fear that as a result 
we are failing to develop to the full that sense of 
trustworthiness so essential in the good citizen. 

I mean to speak here mainly, however, of the 
religious aspects of this question, especially of the 
accountability which we owe to our own nature and 
to the divine author of our lives, for our conduct. 
In the account of the murder of Abel, as told in the 
fourth chapter of Genesis, the poetic narrator of the 
event represents Cain as first lying directly in his 
answer to the question which God put to him, 
"Where is Abel thy brother? " " I know not." This 
lie might have been the result of a sudden fear or 
confusion. A lie is often to be judged leniently, if 
uttered when one's better nature is momentarily 
inactive, and is often easily forgiven if promptly 
repudiated when one's higher powers resume their 
sway. But Cain did not stop with this direct lie. 
He knew well the basic principle on which he was 
being judged. He had accepted all life's privileges, 
but assumed none of its obligations. Hence his 
sneer — "Am I my brother's keeper?" It is the 
world-old, age-long sneer of the selfish heart. 



I50 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

" Am I my brother's keeper ? " The question is 
as old as the race. It is an outgrowth of pure selfish- 
ness and is absolutely opposed to the spirit of the 
Christian religion. 

The Christian religion recognizes man's freedom 
or power to do wrong if he chooses, but seeks to lead 
him of his own free will to do right. When man 
seeks to do right he is early met by the question of 
responsibility. The very phrase " seeks to do right " 
implies that he is choosing his way, and that he 
thus voluntarily enters the network of relationships 
involved in human life. If he were suddenly to quit 
choosing, he would soon die of starvation, and his 
further responsibility, as to this life at least, would 
be canceled. His willful continuing to live is prima 
facie evidence of his deliberate choice to enter upon 
the responsibilities which human life entails; and 
this voluntary living is the phase of life I am try- 
ing to discuss here. 

In the first place, then, the matter of responsi- 
bility is at heart a personal one, because it is the in- 
dividual person in each case whose will is essentially 
free, making the assumption of responsibility not 
only possible but inevitable as well. 

It is because man is capable of higher things 
than the brute can do that he finds responsibilities 
attaching to his conduct not found in relation to 
the actions of lower animals. As I have said once 



SELF-REVELATION 1 5 1 

before, the brute animal never gets drunk, because 
he drinks to satisfy a physical need. He therefore 
drinks the liquid which will satisfy thirst, and he 
stops when his thirst has been quenched, since there 
is no longer any motive to cause him to drink. But 
man, besides having a physical thirst, which under 
normal conditions cool water will satisfy, has a social 
longing, a capacity for friendship and friendly com- 
munion, which he proceeds to gratify — not satisfy. 
Drunkards are social products. No animal was ever 
a drinker of intoxicating liquor because of his own 
unaided act. An animal can be outwitted by man 
and made drunk, can even be induced to cultivate a 
taste for intoxicants ; but this never happens to the 
animal through his own nature. It happens to a 
human being through the indulgence of a higher 
capacity than the animal has, a capacity which is 
thus seen to hold lower as well as higher possibilities. 
The great difficulty lies in the fact that the motive 
to action is largely social, but the real responsi- 
bility rests with the individual human soul. We are 
prone to shift the responsibility to the same province 
in which we find our motives, and to charge upon 
society our individual sins and failures. This tend- 
ency to refer our sins to society is the essence of self- 
ishness and is directly opposed to the Christian spirit. 
Because life without companionship is mere exist- 
ence, we insist on utilizing companionship, asserting 



152 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

at the same time that we are not our brother's keeper. 
We thus profit by the advantages of society without 
being wiUing to assume to the full the responsibilities 
involved in such uses of social opportunities. 

It is the glory of the human being that while his 
temptations, as we have seen, come mainly from his 
higher nature, his individual freedom and his power 
of initiative are able, under the inspiration of the 
Christian faith, to keep him unspotted from the world 
while living in unrestricted companionship with 
human kind in a social order far from perfect. It is 
possible for him to meet at every turn the full meas- 
ure of his responsibilities, and through his own initi- 
ative to keep his conscience clear and his soul pure, 
since no soul can be corrupted except by its own con- 
sent. Resistance to temptation secures the double 
recompense of purity of soul and growth of power 
and character. 

On the other hand, the selfishness which leads us 
so easily to throw off obligations is closely related 
to carelessness. Indeed, it seems to me that care- 
lessness in regard to personal obligations is but a 
passive form of selfishness, more persuasive than 
direct selfishness because less obtrusive and less 
repulsive in its outer aspects. In no way perhaps is 
this elemental selfishness exhibited more commonly 
than in our habitual carelessness in respect to the 
influence of our daily life and example upon our 



SELF-REVELATION 1 5 3 

companions. From the Christian point of view 
nothing can be more important; and yet how few 
of us have ever considered fully the nature of per- 
sonal influence or the methods by which it reaches 
others. Many seek to dominate others by force of 
character or through what we call a " strong per- 
sonality." Everywhere, by intention or by seeming 
accident, this subtle force of personal influence 
permeates all society, directing human action and 
shaping human character. It is almost impossible 
to catch, fix, and name this thing, which in action is 
recognized as personal influence. Doubtless in a 
last analysis it is character^ — what one really is; 
but before this character can move one to imitation 
or the opposite, it must become known to that other, 
must indeed become a sort of idea or ideal, capa- 
ble of inspiring action in the life of that other. One 
who would influence another by his character must 
not ovAy possess character, but he must succeed in 
getting his character into the consciousness of others. 
Character is dynamic only when it has transformed 
itself into an ideal in the mind of some other person. 
Then it causes action in the life of that other, — 
action for which we are partly responsible because 
we in our lives, that is, in our expression of our 
character, have furnished the motive. I have said 
partly responsible, for the receiving party is partly 
responsible also for the way in which he has 



154 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

interpreted our character and wrought it into the 
warp and woof of his own Hfe. I shall not try to fol- 
low the subtleties of this analysis further at this time, 
but rather content myself by showing how com- 
pletely this personal influence enters into all social 
contact and so becomes a shaping influence in all 
life ; and by discussing some of the commonest 
ways in which our characters — yours and mine — 
enter into the lives of others ; that is, how character 
gets into action, how it transforms itself from a 
static something, to be enjoyed by one's self, into 
something dynamic, compelling the attention of 
others, and through this attention, growing into an 
ideal which develops in the consciousness of that 
other, soliciting and almost compelling imitation. 

I disclaim here any discussion of the mysterious. 
I am not talking about telepathy nor any of its kin- 
dred theories. There may be a system of long-dis- 
tance transmission of spiritual influence by a means 
quite in advance of the wireless telegraph or the 
wireless telephone. Indeed, I am quite inclined to 
believe in such possibilities, but I am not now dis- 
cussing them. When Jesus lived upon earth he 
lived with the common people and used the common 
means of communicating his thoughts and feelings 
to others. It is true that the disciples had a loving 
fancy that helpful influences came from his simple 
person. The woman who touched but the hem of 



SELF-REVELATION 155 

his garment believed that thus she should be made 
whole. But Jesus explained fully the true nature of 
the case when he said to her, " Thy faith hath 
made thee whole." It was her conception of his 
character, received through ordinary channels, and 
her belief, that is, her own attitude to this knowl- 
edge, which became the active influence in renovat- 
ing her life. We shall find it always true that the 
active force is the conception of our character which 
has somehow got itself fastened into the conscious- 
ness of the other person, whether this be a true 
representation of our character or not. 

All this makes the study of the methods of trans- 
mission of this subtle but powerful force — personal 
influence — so much more interesting and impor- 
tant. You may rest assured that it all lies within 
the easy range of the senses and such other powers 
as are exercised on information gathered through 
the senses. More than by all other ways, perhaps, 
your character is manifested to others by what you 
say in connected speech, — by speaking or writing, — 
since it is in this way that you manifest most defi- 
nitely and forcefully your thought, which, after all, 
is doubtless the essence of your character. That 
was no chance expression of Holy Writ, "As a man 
thinketh in his heart, so is he." One's strong, defi- 
nite, deliberate thought, touched with kindred emo- 
tion, more than anything else gives force to his 



156 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

character; and its expression in connected speech 
shows the essence of character better than any other 
method. It is this vital connection of thought with 
life as a very determining factor, and therefore its 
close relation to character both as a formative factor 
and as an exact indicator, that makes the expres- 
sion of thought in language so sure a revealer of 
character. 

The most casual observation shows that language, 
both spoken and written, but especially spoken lan- 
guage, is greatly aided by incidental factors, more or 
less intimately associated with language. So that, 
besides what one really says as to his thoughts and 
feelings, his intentions and determinations, he con- 
stantly reveals the finer shades of his opinion by the 
way he acts, by the tones of his voice, by gesture, by 
the way he dresses, the way he walks, the way he 
rises up and sits down, the way he comes in and 
goes out, and by the minutest variations in these 
manifold and varied activities. Every motion made 
is a help to the complete revelation of self; and the 
expert reader of character is simply he who has 
learned to interpret rightly these multiform signs 
which each of us is manifesting every moment of 
his waking existence. While we are thus influenc- 
ing others, we in turn are leaning upon the charac- 
ter of others, and are being influenced both by the 
traits we admire and imitate and by those we dislike 



SELF-REVELATION 157 

and avoid. Each of us is an electric battery of influ- 
ence, sending out along the lines of easy conduc- 
tion the subtle influence which shapes the lives of 
other people; but we are also living in a perfect 
network of similar batteries, from which we are all 
the while receiving formative influences that react 
powerfully upon us and modify our own character 
from moment to moment and from day to day. 

I have already called attention to the fact that 
the force which goes out from us to influence an- 
other is not necessarily our character as it really is, 
but rather that other's conception of what it is. In 
reality, it is his own conception of us which he likes 
or dislikes and hence imitates or avoids. It so hap- 
pens, then, since different persons have different 
means of knowing me, and since each one brings to 
such knowledge his own bias or prejudice, no two 
people have exactly the same conception of me. It 
therefore results that my influence upon the lives 
of different people is totally different as they have 
gained differing conceptions of me. There are, there- 
fore, as many different mes or selves as there are 
people who know me or partially know me, and I 
multiply my power for good or evil in the lives of 
other people as I extend my acquaintance. You 
are doubtless familiar with the experience of hav- 
ing people give differing impressions of the same 
person, depending on their opportunity of really 



158 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

knowing the person and on the bias of mind which 
each brought to the interpretation of his character. 
There is thus not merely one self for each of us, but 
thousands of selves, as our thousands of acquaint- 
ances have conceived our character; and each of 
these selves is an active worker, forming to some 
extent, however small, the final characters of those 
who have known us. What they admire in us they 
imitate, under the law of attraction, and so they 
gradually become like us in those special ways. It 
is the old story over again, of the little flower which 
lived in a dell, from between the rugged sides of 
which it could see but a small patch of blue sky by 
day and a single star by night; and as it looked 
upon the blue sky by day and the single star by 
night and longed to be with them and like them, its 
petals gradually grew to be blue and its heart turned 
to gold. Whether or not this story tells the exact 
process by which the bluebell came into existence, 
it at least expresses the law of human evolution and 
character growth. How heavy the responsibility of 
each of us to see to it that our influence over others 
is sane and wholesome ! 

The influence that we exert over others divides 
itself for our thought into two parts: (i) that which 
we exert intentionally, of set purpose, and by selected 
methods, and (2) the unconscious influence given out 
by unintentional revelations of our character. 



SELF-REVELATION 159 

The most conspicuous example of personal in- 
fluence exerted intentionally is the work of the 
teacher. So extensive is this theme and so profound 
and far-reaching is its philosophy that great institu- 
tions are created for the purpose of teaching this 
philosophy, and years are spent in its acquisition. 
The school itself as an institution exists for the pur- 
pose of giving vitality to this outgoing of our per- 
sonal influence. But each of us is also unconsciously 
exerting this influence unintentionally. Two people 
cannot meet in the most casual fashion without in- 
fluencing each other to some degree. Though they 
speak of nothing more exciting than the weather or 
the state of the crops, or the tariff, both of them 
acquire a new trend in life, however slight and brief 
the change in direction may be. We are ourselves 
often unaware of certain changes in our opinion, 
beliefs, or hopes, and even when we recognize the 
change we may be entirely unconscious of its source 
and inspiration. 

And now what is the lesson of it all for our prac- 
tical living ? Just this in brief: Life is partly at least 
what we choose to make it. Character is the chief 
thing. Our human obligations are best met by en- 
tering joyously and courageously into the community 
life about us, and by keeping ourselves alert and 
sensitive to the touch of the spirit. With Jesus 
Christ as our ideal, and an active effort for the 



l6o EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

realization of this ideal in ourselves, there is little 
danger that we shall fail to meet fairly the obligations 
of the highest life. This full development of the sense 
of responsibility brings with it a sense of perfection 
in life that will tend to make us more just and more 
charitable to others. Idealism in religious life will 
give us the power to put ourselves in the place of 
another, and thus to see things from the standpoint 
of that other. This is the basis of all sympathy. 
This is what enabled Jesus to enter so completely 
into the lives of those about him, to understand 
their motives, and to account for their actions. He 
was able to see the difference between sin and a 
sinner — to denounce a person's sin and at the same 
time to love the sinner. It enabled him to see how 
much alike all people are in fundamentals, and how 
differences are often almost entirely in nonessentials. 
The person without religious imagination is neces- 
sarily narrow and bigoted in his beliefs. He cannot 
see how things can properly occur to any one else 
except in the precise way in which they have oc- 
curred to him. His experience would set the law 
for the experience of others. It is as if a resident of 
Detroit should go to Chicago by way of the Michigan 
Central Railway and straightway proclaim that the 
only road leading into Chicago is by way of Detroit. 
He might then instruct the residents of Cleveland 
that if they wish to visit Chicago they must in some 



SELF-REVELATION i6i 

way get to Detroit, from which point they will have 
a plain way to their destination. With his narrow 
experience of travel and without imagination he can- 
not see the straight road from Cleveland to Chicago, 
but must insist upon fastening his own limitations 
upon every other traveler. This illustration is no 
whit more ridiculous than others we might draw 
from the religious experiences of many people. Be- 
cause a man has been led to Christ through a form 
or rite of some particular church, he sets up this 
particular rite as a necessary means or step in the 
religious experience of all Christians, instead of 
seeing it in its true light merely as a special means 
in his individual religious life, to be replaced in the 
case of others by means as different from this as the 
other person's individual characteristics and experi- 
ences are different from his. 

Sameness of destination does not mean sameness 
of way, but rather such difference of way as the 
starting points may make possible or desirable. 
Persons who already live near the destination and 
on the plain highway thereto must not judge too 
harshly those who were born farther away, or amidst 
obstructions which make the journey slow and pain- 
ful. Complete self-revelation will sound the death 
knell of religious bigotry. Already, ideal religious 
cooperation begins to seem possible. Religious ideal- 
ism is enabling us to put ourselves in the place of 



l62 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the other person, to see things from his angle of 
vision, to infer his motives from his experiences, 
and lastly to sympathize with him in his efforts in- 
stead of judging him by his achievements. Its height 
will be reached when we can pray for all sinners as 
Jesus prayed for his persecutors, " Father, forgive 
them, for their sins are largely the result of igno- 
rance," — or, as Jesus said it, "they know not what 
they do." 



CHAPTER IV 

SELF-DIRECTION 

The preceding chapter was mainly devoted to 
the discussion of the growth of the human being 
from the unconsciousness of infancy through self- 
revelation to the self-consciousness of mature and 
developed manhood and womanhood. 

The process begins with the child in the mental 
mastery of the objects about him, whether these be 
things or persons. As he learns the attributes of 
things or persons, the activities employed and the 
gratification in the use of the knowledge acquired 
are the natural means of awakening and developing 
certain capacities of the soul, which previous to such 
exercise were more or less latent. The growth into 
self-consciousness through self-revelation, then, is 
growth in the knowledge of things, a clearer notion 
and a deeper appreciation of our own powers and 
capacities, and a fuller insight into the ways in which 
the things of the universe may be helpful in forward- 
ing our life development. As a necessary part of 
this growing or developing of the soul comes a 
clearer and clearer distinction between the self as 
a free, active power and the other things of the 

universe which make up its environment. 

163 



1 64 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

This distinction, vague at first, becomes clearer at 
each access of knowledge and with each deeper 
appreciation of one's capacities, till at last the self 
becomes an individual, differing by its attributes 
and capacities from all other things in the universe, 
though sustaining numerous relations of likeness 
with them all. This sense of individuality, this feel- 
ing of selfhood, accompanied by a sense of power 
and worth, is the evidence of true growth from im- 
maturity toward maturity. It is in this way that 
the child rounds himself " to a separate mind, from 
whence clear memory may begin." The developing 
memory, which goes hand in hand with all further 
development of self-consciousness, serves to give 
continuity to the feeling of personality, resulting in 
a more decided feeling of selfhood. The student 
thus comes to feel that he is a person with a history, 
and he may now begin to conceive of a destiny. 

It is clear that growth in self-consciousness is 
never one isolated line of development; it is the 
cause and accompaniment of other related lines of 
development, all bound together by the complex 
activities of the developing soul. The unity of the 
soul as an entity or thing underneath its complex 
activities, tends to keep all lines of development 
properly related, though there is much left for 
teachers to do in preserving the balance of the soul 
activities which are intended as educative influences. 



SELF-DIRECTION 165 

At first all special direction must come from with- 
out, — from teachers, parents, and friends. But the 
goal to be reached is self-direction. For this the 
growth in self-consciousness constantly prepares 
the way. With the distinction between one's self and 
other things made clear to consciousness, and with 
memory of the past that is known to be reliable, one 
is ready naturally to contemplate his destiny. In a 
semiconscious way this process begins with the 
dawning of self-consciousness, but it lingers a little 
in its growth, since it is dependent on memory and 
imagination. 

Both self-consciousness and self-direction are the 
necessary outcome of self-activity, but self-direction 
is a higher form of development than either of the 
others. Self-direction cannot precede self-conscious- 
ness, but it accompanies it, or follows so closely that 
the difference of time is not appreciable. The order 
is more a question of logic than of definite time. The 
soul cannot direct itself till it has gained material out 
of which to construct ideals or standards, — goals of 
effort, however temporary or imperfect these may be. 
To make right standards, a person's experience must 
be liberal and his knowledge extensive. One must 
be familiar with many provinces of human thought 
and human experience. 

We begin ideal-making as soon as we have ac- 
quired a little knowledge and a few memories, but 



1 66 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the character of our ideals changes as our education 
proceeds. The higher ways of culture imply the re- 
combination of worthy knowledge and feeling into 
various ideal forms under the guiding hand of pur- 
pose. An ideal represents a state or condition or 
purpose unrealized, but it does not follow that the 
condition or plan or purpose is unrealizable. In fact 
most ideals are realizable, at least in part. Progress 
is but the successive realizations of what were at 
first merely ideals. Boy hungry is a present con- 
crete condition, it may be. Boy eating an apple or a 
cooky is perhaps at present an ideal condition ; but 
the chances are that what is now an ideal will within 
a few minutes be fully realized, the very attractiveness 
of the ideal having stimulated invention of ways and 
means for its realization. Thus does the ideal become 
a motive, — the only reliable appeal that can be made 
to a self -active, self-conscious being. Such a being is 
always by his nature setting goals, laying plans, form- 
ing purposes. His own developed capacities urge him 
on. The soul's own sense of worth when once aroused 
makes it long for the realization of a higher self. 

All plans, intentions, purposes, hopes, are but ideals 
awaiting realization. All life of a high order is but 
the realization of what was at first a dimly seen ideal 
of some enthusiast. Ideals are essential to progress. 
Great ideals lead to great achievements. Themisto- 
cles could not sleep after he had seen the trophies in 



SELF-DIRECTION 167 

the Ceramicus. Lofty aspirations and ardent long- 
ings fired his imagination and urged him to prepa- 
ration for heroic endeavor. The patriotic examples 
of his countr)^men became his standard of conduct, 
around which he gathered the halos of glory fur- 
nished by his excited imagination. The longing for 
like glory to theirs was a stronger motive force within 
him than could be supplied by any power from with- 
out. Thus self-activity and self-consciousness supply 
the conditions for self-direction through the knowl- 
edge and the susceptibilities which they furnish. 
Self-consciousness and self-direction merely repre- 
sent higher and higher forms of culture of the self- 
active human soul. 

The elements of material out of which ideals are 
made, are precisely the knowledge (of attributes of 
things) which the self-consciousness has mastered 
and stored in the memory. As has already been 
pointed out, ideal-making begins as soon as a few 
ideas have been experienced and remembered ; but 
it is only after a large experience with the facts of 
the world of matter and with the incidents of social 
companionship, that one has the materials for those 
ideals of life and conduct which play such a conspic- 
uous part in the higher culture of character. More- 
over, the elements of our experience are seldom used 
by us in the construction of ideals without first being 
greatly altered. If a human being could image only 



1 68 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the past, he could not provide for self-culture beyond 
the standards of the past ; but the mind has the na- 
tive power to change its remembered ideas in many 
ways. The power or capacity of the mind to make 
those changes was once called imagination, as if it 
were some separate part or power of the mind. Per- 
haps the name may yet be applied to it, provided 
care is taken to understand the nature of the proc- 
ess thus named or described. The process is one 
of mingled intellect, feeling, and volition, — just such 
complexity as is everywhere seen in mind action, but 
peculiar in the proportion of the various ingredients. 
It is not necessary for our purpose here to analyze 
sharply this process, but rather to note what is ac- 
complished by the mind acting in the special form 
spoken of as imagination. 

Remembered ideas may, under appropriate circum- 
stances, be recalled precisely as at first experienced. 
Such recalling is commonly called recollecting ; and 
the name memory is perhaps the most common name 
by which such composite power as this implies is 
known. For it must be noticed that there is here 
much more than an ordinary matter of intellectual 
action. There is also a revival of the feeling of value 
which was set on the idea when first mastered, to- 
gether with such longings of the soul as were inspired 
by such values. Now, all these, as revived, are sub- 
ject to changes of specific kinds. If the remembered 



SELF-DIRECTION 169 

idea is from the material world, it may be changed 
as to its color or form, its size, density, taste, odor, 
or any other attribute or characteristic belonging to 
it as an object. If it be a mental fact, such as a 
thought or a feeling or a choice that is remembered, 
it may be changed in its intensity or in its duration ; 
it may be attributed to some other mind ; or it may 
be changed in any other of thousands of possible 
ways. These changes modify the original values set 
upon these ideas, and they now in their new form 
arouse a new set of longings. In fact, the remem- 
bered and changed idea has become a totally new 
factor in the mental life of the person. Thus the 
future use of a remembered idea is quite dependent 
on whether it is to be used in its original or its 
idealized form. 

A second possibility is of still greater significance 
in the mental life, so far as the creation of new stand- 
ards of life and conduct are concerned. For the 
mind may now take any one of the many possible 
idealized forms of an idea and use it with either 
original or idealized forms of other ideas, to make a 
new complex or composite idea or ideal. The result- 
ing creation is entirely new, not only unlike any idea 
that ever before existed, but unlike any of the ele- 
ments of which it is made. The builder takes wood 
and stones, bricks and mortar, iron and glass and 
paint, and puts them into such relations to one 



I70 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

another that a house is created, — a thing utterly un- 
like wood, or stones, or bricks, or mortar, or iron, or 
glass, or paint. It is a new creation made out of these 
other things, by using them in certain definite pro- 
portions and relations. In fact, the architect's mind 
had used the ideas of these same articles in an ideal 
construction, resulting in an ideal house, even before 
the builder could proceed to put the real articles into 
the same relations and construct a real house. And 
before the architect made any ideal combination of 
these remembered ideas of his of wood and stones 
and bricks and mortar and iron and glass and paint, 
he changed these remembered ideas into dimensions 
and relations unlike any forms in which these ideas 
had previously existed in his mind. Otherwise he 
would not have produced a new house. And should 
he in the future use these same remembered ideas 
again, changing but a single one of them in a single 
particular, the result would be still another house 
different in certain respects from the other. Thus 
we see the limitless changes possible in so simple 
a thing as an ideal of a house. 

When we come to the construction of an ideal of 
character or conduct, the process is infinitely more 
complex and difficult. Yet it is precisely these ideals, 
shaping the inner life and revolutionizing charac- 
ter and conduct by the new longings and efforts 
which they produce, that concern us so much in the 



SELF-DIRECTION 171 

educational process, — especially the higher phase of 
education in which the student is prepared to take 
his place in human society as a self-governing, self- 
directing, law-abiding member of his community. 

Looking backward we see that however unlimited 
the mind may be in changing its remembered ideas 
preparatory to the creation of ideals, it is absolutely 
dependent on experience for its materials. These 
experiences are deepened and enriched by the self- 
appreciation which they produce, even while the self 
begins to aspire to be more than it is at a given 
moment. Thus the self recalls, revamps, and recom- 
bines its actual experiences as a means of opening 
up possible or ideal experiences, which, luring one 
on to realization, give precisely the new experiences 
which the higher culture demands. In this way the 
endless process of soul growth goes on. Education 
is never static ; it is always a process, always a be- 
coming; and the self, permanent as to its identity, 
changes as to its condition and worth with each 
passing experience. 

A person's ideal, seemingly simple as it is, is rarely 
obtained from one source or at one time. It is, in 
reality, almost infinitely complex. For instance, our 
ideal of beauty in human form is never a mere copy 
of any one whom we have seen. Certain features, 
especially pleasing, have been gathered from one 
person, other features from another. Eyes and 



172 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

mouth may be taken from one, complexion from 
another, form from still another. Probably none 
of these is used until it has been idealized, that 
is, changed to harmonize with our preferences. At 
last, however, when each has been changed to suit 
our existing standard of taste, all are worked over in 
accordance with the laws of relative proportion into 
a whole which satisfies our esthetic judgment. A 
great artist, who is to paint an ideally beautiful 
woman, doubtless has his artistic sense greatly stirred 
by seeing beautiful women; but the final picture 
which he produces is far from being a likeness of 
any woman that he has ever seen. 

A story is told by Vasari, in his work " The Lives 
of Great Painters, Sculptors, and Architects," which 
illustrates in a humorous but striking way the reli- 
ance placed by imaginative minds upon real life and 
experience for stimulation to the creative power. 
The story concerns Leonardo da Vinci, who painted 
his celebrated picture of the Last Supper on the 
wall of the little refectory of the convent of Sta. 
Maria Delle Grazie, at Milan. It seems that the 
Duke of Milan had engaged the artist to decorate 
the walls of this room, without stipulating as to what 
he should choose as decorative material or as to the 
length of time he should devote to the work. When 
Leonardo was seized with the desire to represent 
adequately the great theme presented by the Last 



SELF-DIRECTION 173 

Supper, he examined diligently the Biblical account, 
supplementing this by a study of such tradition as 
had been handed down with reference to the event. 
He also made careful studies of the character of 
each person he was to portray; for while each face 
was of course necessarily ideal, he desired to have it 
express as well as it might the prominent character- 
istics of the person represented. He painted the 
picture over and over, erasing at times all of it and at 
other times such parts as failed to satisfy his exact- 
ing standard. In order to stir his creative powers 
he often spent whole days mingling with the people 
in public places, getting suggestions from faces 
which he saw there. In many cases, after such a day 
spent in the study of faces, he was able to complete 
one or another of the figures about the table. At 
last only two faces remained incomplete, — Judas 
Iscariot's and the Master's. Again there was a long 
delay. The painter would sit by the hour looking 
intently at his picture; then, suddenly seizing his 
hat, he would rush to the street and peer into the 
faces of the passing throng. 

Now it happened that the old prior who had 
charge of that part of the convent could not under- 
stand these delays. He was merely eager to see the 
walls properly decorated. His easily satisfied stand- 
ard of taste would have been fully met by any one 
of the half dozen attempts that had been destroyed 



174 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

by the artist after they had neared completion. Be- 
sides, the prior wished to use the refectory, and he 
thought the painter might as well finish his work 
and allow the room to be refurnished for use. So he 
reported to the duke how things were going and 
asked that the duke would urge Leonardo to com- 
plete his work, adding that, so far as he could see, 
the work was practically finished already; but that 
if that madman were left to himself he would prob- 
ably destroy it all and begin over again, as he had 
often done before. The prior went on to complain 
that the artist did not work half of his time ; that he 
often sat for the space of an hour without lifting his 
brush ; that he acted strangely upon the street, peer- 
ing into the faces of passers-by until he had pro- 
voked comment. He ended by expressing the idea 
that the crazy fellow was not fit to be intrusted 
further with the work. 

The duke, seeing that the prior had no real com- 
prehension of the situation, determined to have some 
enjoyment from the misunderstanding, so he called 
the great painter to task in regard to the progress 
of his labors, and contrived to have the prior present 
during the interview. The duke told Leonardo in 
the presence of the prior what the latter had said, 
and asked what defense the artist had to offer. After 
due consideration, and several glances at the guilty 
prior, Leonardo said that for the most part the 



SELF-DIRECTION 175 

complaints were well founded. The work had pro- 
gressed slowly for many reasons. In the first place, he 
had been unable to satisfy himself as to the grouping 
of the figures involved in the Last Supper. Further- 
more, he had found great difiiculty in getting his 
mind to work freely in devising appropriate expres- 
sions on the different faces of the apostles so as to 
indicate in each case the fundamental traits of char- 
acter. He said that in many cases he had been 
obliged to study a large variety of human faces be- 
fore he could find sufficient suggestion for his work. 
But now, happily, all were done, with the exception 
of two, — Judas Iscariot and the Master. He had 
been unable to find anywhere a face suggesting the 
degree of evil and treachery which he desired to 
express in the face of Judas Iscariot; but now that 
he had been enabled to study the face of the old 
prior, he believed that part of his difficulty was re- 
moved and he should be ready to work rapidly, for if 
he did not soon satisfy himself elsewhere, he could at 
least use the face of the prior for that of Judas. He 
added that he scarcely hoped to find any human 
face that could suggest the ineffable grace and beauty 
he desired to depict in the face of Jesus ; and there 
are art critics to-day who aver that the face of the 
Master was never quite completed. 

However interesting the methods by which great 
artists obtain the material for their ideals, and the 



176 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

ways in which they are influenced by their own 
ideal creations, we are here more concerned with 
the influence of ideals upon the common life of the 
common people. Of all the forms of this influence 
the teacher is most concerned with the right de- 
velopment of those ideals which act as motives to- 
ward the control and direction of conduct. Here 
as elsewhere each person is dependent on experi- 
ence for his material for a beginning. The student's 
acquaintance with the world of matter — with the 
attributes of material objects — furnishes his mind 
with analogies with which to represent in creative 
concrete form many inner experiences which no 
language yet invented can directly express. Never- 
theless, transformation or idealization of these ex- 
periences gives even fuller opportunity for expression 
of spiritual ideas. Besides, one gets directly from 
other people the suggestions which enable the mind 
to transform and use the millions of spiritual ideas 
represented in common daily life. One person sees 
another perform a common act of kindness, and 
already the creative mind has suggested acts of 
kindness a thousandfold more kind. A friend per- 
forms an act of heroism, but the mind outruns the 
fact and is suddenly conscious of higher and higher 
degrees of heroism. So throughout the whole cate- 
gory of existence: experience furnishes the bare 
suggestion in the form of a fact, but the creative 



SELF-DIRECTION 177 

function of mind has already leaped beyond the 
bounds of the actual, and the urging of the ideal 
over the real keeps us full of a divine discontent 
with our present poor attainments. The creative 
power, which thus transforms the actual into the 
attractive possible, delights in enhancement. What- 
ever now is, might be in higher degree and in greater 
glory. On the other hand, the low and the bad sug- 
gest lower depths of vice and misery. Everywhere 
there is enhancement, — the province of the possible. 
In these exaggerated forms of good and evil our 
ideals have large influence in shaping our conduct. 
They enchain our attention and rouse our spirits to 
action, by which we rise or fall in the scale of being. 
If we follow noble ideals, albeit afar off, some of the 
effulgent glow interfuses itself with our experiences. 
Before we have fully realized our allegiance to the 
shining ideal, we have already begun to grow like it. 
Human nature is such that the individual naturally 
tends to become like what he sees oftenest and 
admires most. 



CHAPTER V 

SELF-REALIZATION 

The process by which a self-active being, that is, 
a person, enlarges his experience (becomes self-con- 
scious, — receives his self-revelation) until he is ca- 
pable of directing his life toward worthy ends, and 
is disposed to make the most of his opportunities 
(in other words, becomes self-directive), is properly 
called self-realization. This means the making actual 
what was possible in the very nature of the individual. 

The laws which govern this transforming process 
are the principles of method in education. The 
studies which we have thus far made of the human 
being, whose essence is self-activity capable of be- 
ing transformed by education into self-consciousness 
and self-direction, show man to be a perfectible be- 
ing. The nature of man, therefore, hints at his des- 
tiny. When this destiny is once seen as perfection, 
it is compelling in its nature, and it somehow sets 
itself up in our half-conscious thought as the aim of 
education, however vague its meaning may still be 
to us. It soon makes more or less clear its inclusive- 
ness, till we see, at least dimly, that all the thousands 

of subsidiary, subordinate, and temporary aims, so 

178 



SELF-REALIZATION 179 

far as they are worthy, marshal themselves in due 
order and relation within its scope, and the limits to 
which each subordinate aim should be subjected, be- 
gin to be rightly manifested. It also makes clear 
to us how completely the method of education is 
dominated by the aim of the process, and how thor- 
oughly the aim of education is involved in, deter- 
mined by, and limited through the essential nature 
and the consequent possibilities of the being to be 
educated. The perfection referred to here is no 
more a static thing than is the process of education 
itself. Perfection is merely the " highest attainable 
degree of excellence," — a condition of a person 
which is as changeable as environment itself. The 
self is permanent only as to its identity, but change- 
able as to its condition, following in this respect an 
always receding ideal. Our ideal of perfection itself 
is subject to constant improvement. It is because 
this ideal is movable that we are permitted to speak 
of such an idea as " perfection." 

This chapter on self-realization therefore properly 
resolves itself into a discussion of the aims of edu- 
cation and the methods of education, as these are 
indicated by the nature of the educable being, and 
by the environing conditions under which such edu- 
cation must be carried on. The very meager previous 
discussion of the characteristics of human nature will 
make frequent back reference and some repetition 



i8o EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

necessary. In the narrow limits set for the discus- 
sion it is the writer's intention to make the whole 
suggestive rather than exhaustive and formal. 

In the early stages, as we have seen, the child 
is unconscious, moved by outside forces resulting 
in reflex activities. Soon, dawning consciousness ar- 
rives, and semiconsciousness gives a narrow range 
to interests which rouse self -activity. New interests 
follow the development of innate but hitherto unfelt 
capacities. With enlarged experience and remem- 
bered knowledge from many fields, the child ac- 
quires a many-sided interest, or rather a great 
diversity of interests. He is pulled this way and 
that by these sometimes conflicting interests, thus 
exhibiting the volatile characteristics of immature 
persons. With widening self-consciousness (that is, 
knowledge of the self and the world in relation to 
each other) and ripening judgment, discrimination 
among these interests leads to a more enlightened 
view and a more consistent and unrestricted line of 
daily living; until, as he approaches maturity, he 
unifies this great variety of interests into a more 
or less clear and consistent ideal of life or guide to 
conduct. It is evidence of a high grade of culture 
when one becomes so dominated by a worthy, well- 
unified ideal that one leads a consistent, ener- 
getic, and well-ordered life. Most persons are merely 
dominated in succession by things which appeal 



SELF-REALIZATION i8i 

temporarily to them with great intensity; or they 
fall into steady or consistent conduct on a low level 
of worth or worthiness. 

There is no doubt that any education which seeks 
to fit for helpful, hopeful living must balance one's 
powers, enlarge and enrich one's experience, and 
thus develop large, sane, hopeful views of life and the 
world. The individual then finds it possible in the 
course of his own development to unify all this 
varied and rich experience into ideals which shall 
act as powerful and ennobling motives, resulting in 
purposeful action and achieving further self-develop- 
ment or self-realization. Any teacher who wishes 
his work to be of permanent value must pursue that 
work in view of the way in which the human being 
naturally grows into the appreciation of his own 
powers and his own destiny. One who wishes, then, 
to continue in useful activities in any calling or 
profession, must find in his experience some great 
steadying body of knowledge, resulting in a serene 
belief in the worthiness of his cause and a profound 
faith in the beneficence of human life. Then he will 
form ideals of life and conduct which will energize 
his powers and worthily direct his actions. In such 
way he becomes a sane, vigorous, helpful worker, 
whose vocation is a further means of self-develop- 
ment to him, and will be a beneficence to all about 
him. For work is never successful in its higher 



l82 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

aspects unless it arise from the inspiration of great 
beliefs. Indeed, the results of one's work are already 
predetermined by the belief one holds about the dig- 
nity or value or need of such work. One's nerves 
and muscles are readily palsied by indifference or 
strengthened by enthusiasm. In fact, everywhere, 
one's point of view gives form to one's ideal. " Is a 
mile much } " asked a boy of his father. " That de- 
pends," said the father, " on circumstances. If one 
is riding in a sixty-horse-power automobile, a mile 
is a short distance; but if it is the last mile of a 
Marathon race that is under consideration, it is 
much longer." 

Sometimes there is a moral significance involved 
in the point of view. Diogenes was sitting in his 
traditional tub, eating his frugal meal of boiled cab- 
bage, when one of the king's courtiers with his suite 
of followers came by his domicile. " O my friend 
Aristippus ! " said Diogenes, " if thou hadst learned 
to live on cabbage, thou wouldst not have to flatter 
kings." " O my friend Diogenes ! " replied Aristip- 
pus, " if thou hadst learned to flatter kings, thou 
wouldst not have to live on cabbage." It is a differ- 
ence of point of view. I have already said that true 
ideals of education will always be found to be identi- 
fied with true ideals of life. When a man has to 
some extent determined on the purpose of life, — 
what he shall live for and what it is possible for him 



SELF-REALIZATION 183 

to accomplish, — it will appear certain to him that 
he must be educated for efficiency in such living. 
Doubtless it was some such thing as this that Her- 
bert Spencer meant when he enunciated, in that 
notable definition of his, that one must be educated 
for complete living. Life is so diversified in its aims, 
achievements, and possibilities, that its purpose al- 
most defies inclosure in definition ; so it is with the 
purpose of education. One may speak here in glit- 
tering generalities, but seldom with accuracy and 
precision. Happily, since definitions of ideals are 
chiefly for inspiration, one can do much in this direc- 
tion without being compelled to strive for absolute 
accuracy. It is, I think, unquestionable that final 
or ultimate aspects of human life must be founded 
on human possibilities, — that is, life shall mean all 
that it is possible for man to achieve for himself. 
This implies full knowledge of all the powers and 
capabilities of man, — not man as at present de- 
veloped, but man as he may be when he has run the 
full course which God through evolution has planned 
for him. And so education should follow the same 
trend, and should in a way prepare for achieving life 
to the limit in any age or stage of development. 

In the case of the individual being, one must re- 
gard the limitations of the stage of development and 
other facts of present environment. So in education, 
our efforts must turn to what is possible as well 



1 84 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

as to what is desirable. Long and patient study of 
man's nature, physical, mental, and spiritual, will 
eventually point, even if somewhat vaguely, to the 
realization of the marvelous issues of his possibili- 
ties ; and vague as is such evidence, it will serve as 
one point in a long line of perspective which shall 
help to show the trend of movement by which man 
has advanced and is advancing and may advance to- 
ward perfection. To have thus the ultimate ideal of 
human perfection as the aim of education, vitalizes 
effort, develops enthusiasm, and shows the general 
direction of educational effort, though it be granted 
that much desirable definition is lacking. 

Such ideals are necessary to give general direction 
to effort, but it must be admitted that ultimate or 
final ends in education, as in life itself, are not usually 
effective or definitely impressive to young students 
or to average teachers. Therefore, subordinate or 
intermediate aims must be set up. These subordi- 
nate aims are like stakes set up between the observer 
and a far-off goal to show the direction of immediate 
movement. It is evident that one could not know 
where to set up the near-by stakes unless the goal 
had been first fairly well established. And, given the 
goal, there is still needed a full survey of the inter- 
mediate territory before the best avenue of immedi- 
ate advance can be known. These subordinate ideals 
are way stations, so near to the point of starting, in 



SELF-REALIZATION 185 

many instances, that the journey there seems easy ; 
yet they are so situated that the distance covered is 
in the right hne toward the goal, and not in some 
other direction. Subordinate aims, to be effective, 
must be easily and almost immediately realizable ; 
which is but another way of saying that the next 
way station must be in full sight from the starting 
point. But such a way station may readily be regarded 
as a terminal point by the easily satisfied passengers ; 
and students need to be guarded against thinking of 
subordinate ends as ultimate ideals. These way sta- 
tions must be seen for what they really are, namely, 
temporary landing stages, incident to the onward 
movement toward finalities, — toward the highest 
and best. 

We come now to the question, What is this highest 
and best in life and in education toward which all 
effort must be directed ? Frankly, no one yet knows 
fully. So long as there is uncertainty here, all sur- 
veys of the intermediate ground will be full of con- 
flict and doubt, — that is, they will be more or less 
tentative. But, fortunately for education, much new 
knowledge about finalities in this province is being 
discovered, and soon we shall have a unity of belief, 
if not an entire agreement, as to the exact location 
and nature of the ultimate ideal ; or at least a prac- 
tical agreement as to the general direction in which 
education must move in order to reach perfection as 



l86 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

its goal. We are doubtless now in no worse condi- 
tion in this respect as to education than were the 
great explorers in regard to the poles of the earth. 
Until lately no one had reached either pole, yet the 
exact location and true nature of both were fairly 
well known. There is little difficulty in determining 
the general direction which must be taken by the 
explorers, but there is still infinite discussion of 
detail as to routes and resting places for surveying 
parties. Explorers know fairly well where they wish 
to go, but they seem to be involved in more or less 
confusion during the journey. So modern research 
in psychology, philosophy, social economy, and other 
related studies have fairly well located the final ideal 
of education in the perfection of the individual, elu- 
sive and mystifying as this term remains. 

Individual perfection does not necessarily mean 
individualism ; for the highest good of the individual 
can be achieved, not in seclusion, but in social and 
cooperative activities. It is fully within human nature 
to be social, or even to be sociable; but no society 
can rise higher in its ideals or results than is made 
possible by the character and training of the indi- 
vidual units of which it is made up. The coopera- 
tive principle which underlies society is a marvelous 
force for multiplying and magnifying the good in the 
individual ; and this principle itself, being grounded 
in human nature, is involved in human culture. So 



SELF-REALIZATION 187 

the best test yet discovered by which the interme- 
diate and temporary standards of education may be 
examined is the standard of the greatest good to the 
individual as a moral person. This standard is still 
maintained, too, in its essentials, if we say the great- 
est good to the greatest number of individuals ; but 
it must be always the good or the perfection of the 
individual. There is nothing else worth perfecting. 
I am sure that future study and discovery will not 
necessitate the setting up of a different standard 
from this individual good or perfection, but I feel 
that future discovery will fill these terms with 
greater significance and outline their meaning with 
more definiteness. 

We have here, then, an ideal of education suffi- 
ciently definite to direct present action, and suffi- 
ciently comprehensive to include all the variables 
involved in human development for all time. This 
is the final standard by which to judge all educa- 
tional work, — its practices, schemes, and suggestions. 
In every case, while trying to achieve immediate edu- 
cational aims, nothing must be done or permitted 
which will tend to dwarf the original powers of the 
child, or retard or pervert in any way his final achieve- 
ment of the highest which his nature and environ- 
ment make possible for him. In everyday, practical 
life many things that we are compelled to do for the 
gratification of immediate needs are in themselves or 



l88 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

their results stultifying to our higher powers and de- 
structive to our highest possibilities. These are the 
limitations of environment in practical life placed on 
our perfectible human nature. This retardation may 
come from the obstruction of our powers by neces- 
sary but monotonous routine; sometimes, however, 
and perhaps more frequently, from the gradual lower- 
ing of our ideals of life by the common, possibly the 
brutalizing details of daily living. The boy who found 
a silver dollar in the dust at his feet never saw the 
stars again, but rested in the hope of greater suc- 
cess on the lower plane thus emphasized in his life. 
It is important to note that striving for the highest 
personal or individual good is never of the nature of 
selfishness, but is always altruistic in character. That 
such action results in the highest good to the indi- 
vidual actor, who, for the moment, has forgotten 
selfish ends, is also within human nature, and is a 
part of its natural development. The old theory that 
all human motives are grounded in selfishness has 
persisted so long only because, in the course of the 
argument, two separate meanings are fitted into the 
middle term "selfishness." The English language 
needs another adjective which, while it shall express 
the personal element indicated by the adjective 
selfish^ shall have none of the exclusiveness of that 
word. All this will become clearer in the years to 
come, when the psychologist and the philosopher 



SELF-REALIZATION 189 

shall have found out more about the nature of man 
and the possibilities for development by individual 
effort and social cooperation ; and so the moral and 
spiritual standards of man's life will be more and 
more definitely named. 

Education must seek to realize such an ideal for 
every person in every community. But our busy 
workaday world is concerned with practical results 
and intermediate standards, and only the few see 
fully the importance of ultimate standards. In the 
meantime, it is our business to help to the realization 
of these more immediate ideals, all the while trying, 
however, to realize them in such a way as shall still 
leave open the pathway for each individual to seek 
his own higher interests when opportunity shall offer. 
And above all, it should be the office of those of us 
who have set apart our time for such study, to pre- 
vent wrong standards from being set up at inter- 
mediate stations, always insisting that immediate 
standards, even while made prominent, should mark 
some progress on the right way. Wrong standards 
not only lead to activities that do not educate rightly, 
but prevent activities toward other and better ideals. 
Many immediate ideals may be right in themselves, 
but if realized, they tend to make us forget that there 
is anything higher or farther on. It is the teacher's 
office to keep the public reminded of the larger hope 
and the truer aim. 



I90 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

I have already suggested that ultimate ideals are 
not so immediately effective as are some less com- 
plete but more immediate ones. Their function is 
rather to form a general basis on which to build all 
minor theories ; to furnish the ground for growth of 
conviction and an undying belief; to create a great 
faith which shall slowly but surely guide all action. 
The belief in the perfectibility of man and the essen- 
tial nobleness of his nature tends to keep one's mind 
serene in the midst of the necessary irritations of 
one's daily teaching. It is this that makes one un- 
willing to give way too easily to less noble ends and 
less exacting standards of work. But one must ana- 
lyze the great ideal into its elements and seek to 
realize these smaller aims in due course, so that 
each effort in itself shall tend in the right direction, 
and cooperating with all others, help in the end to 
the realization of the highest. The course of study, 
as planned for the various grades of a school system, 
is such an attempt to analyze the great ideal into its 
components, and to select and arrange in due order 
of immediateness those ideas of human experience 
which, when mastered, constitute the process of 
education. 

Such an analysis proceeds until the veriest minu- 
tiae are specified and the exact order of progress is 
indicated ; until the first-grade teacher is furnished 
with hundreds of immediate problems, whose mastery 



SELF-REALIZATION 191 

by the pupils will constitute the realization of many 
immediate and subordinate ideals. Nor does the 
primary teacher always consciously think out the 
realization of these minor ideals for the little child. 
It is enough that the great ideal has produced 
in her an abiding faith in all higher things, and 
has set the whole machinery of her mind and na- 
ture in time and tune with the higher harmonies. 
Then she will unconsciously put into the smallest 
act of teaching the quality that makes it of infinite 
worth. With such a teacher the problem of two 
times two takes on something of the character of 
the eternal verities, akin to the laws by which the 
stars move in their courses. It is when the primary 
teacher has no such clear conception of ultimate aims, 
and no such abiding faith in the highest destiny of 
her pupils, that she rests in these preliminary ideals 
and descends to unworthy methods in teaching the 
multitudinous details of her daily program. It is 
when the teacher has no such vision that she finds 
her work drudgery, and makes learning a weariness 
of the flesh for her pupils. 

After this general outline of the relation of self- 
realization to the preceding ideas of self-activity, 
self-revelation, and self-direction, it is proper to enter 
into a closer and more logical analysis of the theme. 
It is evident that the first steps of self-realization 
have to do with the home and school life of the 



192 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

child. What the early stages of self-realization shall 
be, therefore, are conditioned not alone by the 
nature of the child, but also by the character of 
the home of the child and the school in which he 
receives his early formal education. We are here 
especially concerned with the school ; but the char- 
acter of the school is largely determined by the 
ideals or aims of education held by the teachers and 
by the methods which they employ in their work. 
This makes it apparent that at this point of the 
discussion it is necessary to enter into a careful 
analysis of educational aims and of the various 
methods of using the subjects of study, which be- 
come in this way the means by which the teacher 
realizes the aims which he holds, and thus furthers 
or retards the self-development of the pupil. 

In this analysis the attempt will be made to ex- 
plain how the various so-called immediate aims may 
be unified into one aim by higher and higher gen- 
eralization ; and further, there will be an attempt to 
show that each branch of subject matter studied in 
school has a special function which no other subject 
is so well fitted to serve, in the self-realization of 
the pupil, though it is not intended to make this 
phase of the subject a matter of prolonged discus- 
sion. This suggestion of the special culture value 
of each subject of study does not have any refer- 
ence to the old-time view of psychology, in which 



SELF-REALIZATION 193 

the mind was considered as made up of so-called 
faculties. This will all be kept clear in the mind of 
the reader by a reference to the chapter on The 
Point of View. 

I have already spoken tentatively of the final or 
ultimate aim of education for any individual as the 
achievement of the highest good or his personal per- 
fection^ well realizing at the time the vagueness of 
these terms. I have also said that such statement 
of an educational ideal has in it little of inspiration 
to the average student or teacher; and that only 
when it is interpreted in its details, that is, in the 
subordinate ideals or elements of which it is made 
up, does it become effective in actual learning or 
teaching. It seems appropriate here, therefore, to 
attempt a detailed analysis of the final educational 
ideal proposed in these pages, in order to show its 
practical application to daily teaching. If such an- 
alysis shall be in any degree successful, the ideal 
thus developed will then not only serve as a great 
steadying principle, but will be seen to permeate 
all education, giving significance to many details 
of daily teaching, which without such view become 
monotonous and unmeaning drudgery. 

It must, however, be remembered that this prob- 
lem of finding a working aim of education as a pre- 
liminary condition to the determination of courses 
of study and methods of teaching is as old as 



194 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

human history. It has been present consciously or 
unconsciously in all study of human progress, espe- 
cially human progress as affected by the idea of the 
school in any form as a means of human advance- 
ment. One must have special reason, therefore, for 
attempting again the solution of a problem which 
has hitherto baffled honest, earnest, and capable 
thinkers. This reason seems to me to be presented 
now in the marvelous development, in very recent 
years, of new and special phases of educational doc- 
trine and practice brought about by enthusiasts in 
special lines of educational endeavor. The well- 
known dissatisfaction with old aims and methods, 
and the evident educational unrest in all depart- 
ments of teaching, have given rise to an infinite 
variety of new aims and new practices. These are 
urged forward by enthusiasts, whose view is clear 
and intense if sometimes narrow in range and un- 
fortunate in form of expression; but the very 
enthusiasms possible to such limited and intense 
view have led to a fuller understanding of many of 
the new aims and methods. Consequently the stu- 
dent of to-day has before him a wealth of material 
which makes possible for the first time in the his- 
tory of education a systematic comparative study of 
aims and practices. It has seemed to the writer, 
therefore, that there is now good reason for the 
making of a detailed analysis of these one-sided 



SELF-REALIZATION 195 

claims, to the end that the good in each may to 
some extent be correlated with what is of permanent 
value in all others. In this way, it is believed, there 
may be made to appear gradually the elements 
which, rightly unified, may be capable of expression 
as a final organic aim of education. Such analysis, 
even if it should not result in a final condensed 
statement of a final aim (or the final aim), will at 
least form a basis for inquiring into the functions of 
the various branches of learning in the formal edu- 
cation of the individual. And this study, in turn, 
will lay a sure foundation for the methods of culture 
leading to the right growth and development of a 
human being. 

It is the purpose of the writer, therefore, to con- 
sider somewhat the various definitions which have 
been given by the great students of education, and 
to make such analysis and interpretation of these 
as shall tend to reveal their inner meaning and to 
show their proper relation to the question of public 
education. The test to be applied in each case is 
the perfection or highest and truest development of 
the individual to be educated. This perfection, how- 
ever, is not intended to be any selfish development 
of a person as a recluse, but the development of 
each person as an individual element of that social 
whole, participation in the organic activities of which 
alone makes possible complete individual human 



196 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

development. And if at first there be some vague- 
ness in the test itself, the meaning and range of the 
term " human development " may become clearer as 
the discussion proceeds. 

It is manifest that to get at the real spirit of such 
inquiry one must examine not only those formal 
statements called definitions, but also those inci- 
dental statements in which educators have sug- 
gested, in a less formal way, their beliefs and 
practices, so that one may get at the very heart 
of the question regardless of the formal rhetorical 
and logical laws governing the forming and state- 
ment of definitions. 

It may be an easy beginning in this matter if we 
examine a little more fully and definitely the funda- 
mental idea on which the entire discussion is based. 
It has been assumed that self-activity is the primal 
and fundamental characteristic of the human being 
as distinguished from objects of the material world 
about us. Education as growth or development, 
then, has special reference to changes which may 
be induced in such being through his own effort. 
A self-active being is subject to appeal from 
motives; and while the human being is immature, 
this motive may be supplied from the outside. But 
presently the self creates its own motives and be- 
comes self-directive. This is a movement in growth 
or development. While the direction of this growth 



SELF-REALIZATION 197 

is somewhat dependent on the nature of the motive 
supplied (environment), particularly in youth, yet it 
is clearly limited to what is possible for a being so 
constituted. Whatever possibilities lie in a being 
may be developed through proper influences; but 
no result in perfection of any kind can be attained 
which is not implied in the original nature of the 
being. This simply means that growth or develop- 
ment toward perfection is possible only in so far as 
this growth or development or perfection is poten- 
tially in the being at birth. Education does not 
change the nature of the being, but only makes 
the best of what is already in germ (that is, pos- 
sible) in the being at birth. And when the human 
being has become partly self-directive he always 
seeks to change his environment when it is not 
already satisfactory, enabling him the better to give 
development to other potentialities of his nature 
not hitherto reached and moved into growth by mo- 
tives and agencies already existing. This tendency 
accounts for the creation of institutions, and inci- 
dentally of the school, as a special agency, for the 
cultivation of the youth of the nation. 

The great fact that the results of education are 
limited by the nature of the being to be educated 
is of grave importance in determining the trend and 
the methods of education, and is sufficient reason for 
the study of psychology by all prospective teachers. 



198 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

It also shows that the aim of education, in order to 
be helpful in determining methods of teaching, must 
be in accordance with the nature of the being to be 
educated. In so far as this statement (or definition) 
of the aim can be made to expose or explain the 
nature of the being, and in so far as it can be made 
to show what this nature may grow into when edu- 
cated rightly, it will become more and more helpful 
in determining methods of education. 

For the reasons given above one finds various 
forms of statement for the aim of education by dif- 
ferent writers, as one strives either for conciseness 
of logical statement (definition) or for helpful and 
inspiring statement of the ideal involved. In the lat- 
ter case the form becomes loose and complicated, 
approaching description rather than definition in 
its strict sense. 

The writer presents herewith eight different forms 
of the definition of the aim of education as used 
in these pages, varying from the form of logical 
and universal definition through varying degrees 
of complexity to full expositions of the meaning of 
human nature. 

The following eight definitions, therefore, are 
merely different forms of statement for the same 
content or meaning, the form of statement alone 
being changed. 

I. The true aim of education is human perfection. 



SELF-REALIZATION 199 

2. The true aim of education is the perfection of 
the individual human being. 

3. The true aim of education is to bring to perfec- 
tion all the capacities for good inherent in each 
individual human being. 

4. The true aim of education is to develop into 
the greatest possible efficiency the innate capacities 
of the human being. 

5. The true aim of education is to develop the 
self-activity of the immature human being into self- 
consciousness and self-direction, with self-perfection 
or self-realization as the standard. 

6. The true aim of education is the transform- 
ing of the self-active, irresponsible, immature human 
being into a responsible, self-directive person. 

7. The true aim of education is to develop the 
self-activity of the individual into its higher correla- 
tives of self-consciousness and self-direction by proc- 
esses controlled by correct ideals of self-perfection. 

8. The true aim of education is to cause the 
self-active, immature individual to enlarge and enrich 
his experience till he becomes capable of directing 
his own conduct and disposed to make the most 
of his opportunities. 

The first of these definitions, "The true aim of 
education is human perfection," is universal in form. 
It does not attempt an explanation of its own mean- 
ing. It has the correct logical form ; that is, it places 



200 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the thing to be defined in a suitable genus (perfec- 
tion) and then expresses the special limitations of 
the species by an adjective (human). " Perfection " 
is a condition arrived at through progressive de- 
velopment of something capable of progress toward 
greater worth. The word "human" expresses the 
essence of the being capable of education. The right 
interpretation and expression of the full meaning of 
these two concepts ("perfection" and "human") would 
be a complete theory of education and would require 
a volume for its rendering. In fact, all the preceding 
pages of this book are in a partial way an expansion 
of this interpretation, made in this case before the 
statement by definition, and intended as preparation 
for the acceptance by readers of this definition when 
stated and still further explained. This is a common 
method of procedure in argument, — partial explana- 
tion by way of preparation, full statement in con- 
densed form, and then final explanation. In this 
way the mind of the reader or hearer is led by easy 
gradation to final acceptance. 

When the above method is not practicable from 
lack of time or lack of space or for other reasons, an 
attempt is sometimes made to explain more or less 
within the definition itself. In some cases also there 
is the further purpose of placing special emphasis 
upon a particular interpretation of some element of 
the original concepts. The remaining seven forms 



SELF-REALIZATION 201 

of definition are of this character, some of them for 
mere explanation and others for special emphasis. 
All have the same content when properly interpreted, 
for all hold the essence of " perfection " and " human." 

Before attempting the discussion of emphasis, we 
shall try to give a somewhat full explanation of the 
meaning of these two concepts, as used in the defini- 
tion, after which certain attempts at emphasis in par- 
ticular expressions of several of the other forms 
will be easily and clearly seen. 

First, then, " perfection." The idea expressed here 
is one of condition, — not a static condition, but one 
subject to further development. Such condition is 
always limited as to its possibilities by the nature of 
the thing referred to. What perfection requires is the 
best possible for that special thing. 1 1 has as its oppo- 
nent the immature and the unsatisfactory and the 
unfinished. This statement hints at a still higher 
standard by which the "best possible" in any case 
is itself measured or determined. And thus we have 
raised for us the world-old question of the best, the 
highest good, the " summum bonum " of old-time 
philosophy. Let us not be alarmed by the specter. 
It is not essential to progress that we be able sud- 
denly to solve this seemingly insolvable problem 
of the ages. All we have to do is to keep at the 
problem, shedding on the question whatever addi- 
tional light the new age provides. The history of 



202 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the human race shows unmistakable progress, be- 
cause the race has unconsciously or semiconsciously 
moved toward the light, however dim this light has 
been. It seems to be imbedded in the nature of 
things that obedience to the light — movement 
toward the light — places one in position to see 
the greater light, to discover the greater truth. 

The progress of the race has always been subject 
to this peculiar relation of knowledge of truth to 
the use of truth. The seer, the poet, the prophet, 
and the philosopher have in all ages had their hori- 
zon widened by the partial realization of their visions 
by men in the practical affairs of life ; and the final 
vision is delayed till realization, now so far behind, 
shall partly catch up with thought. Practice tries 
out theory, sometimes correcting its defects. Visions 
of seers, prophets, and philosophers are always par- 
tial, sometimes only partly correct. The realization 
in practical life of all the truth thus revealed, opens 
the way for truer and larger visions, and in time for 
new progress in practical affairs. Those who do the 
will of the Father are those who finally come to know 
of the doctrine, — thought being fruitful only when 
supported by practical obedience in daily living. If, 
therefore, we do not yet know what absolute perfec- 
tion is, because we do not yet know our final state- 
ment of good so far as human progress is concerned, 
history begins to show in perspective the trend of 



SELF-REALIZATION 203 

action which is for the best ; and so we are able to 
put up signboards which indicate the general direc- 
tion to the right station, though we cannot yet place 
the goal with finality. So it is to the other con- 
cept of our definition — its "human" character — 
that we look for a fuller significance of the concept 
" perfection." 

Here we are again met, this time very definitely, 
by the fact that perfection for any being is strictly 
limited by the possibilities inherent in the being 
whose perfection is sought. Human perfection is, 
therefore, bound up in possibility in the inherent 
nature of the human being, to be unfolded and 
brought to perfect realization by a process known 
as education. We are driven back again then to a 
fuller study of the nature of man as an educable be- 
ing. The true aim of his education is to produce all 
the good that can be made of this being; and the 
methods of education will be determined by joint 
consideration of this nature and this discovered aim. 

No one yet knows all the meanings of the word 
"self." Many preceding pages have been given up to 
a preparatory explanation of its significance. We may 
for the present purpose say that the real self is that 
something in each of us which retains its identity 
through the long current of its own changing ex- 
periences. Some recent psychologists, as we have 
seen, deny the existence of an entity, because by 



204 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

physical experiment they have not discovered such 
a permanent abiding self. But it is not to be discov- 
ered by such method, being found only by conscious- 
ness supported by reason. The soul experiences 
conditions and is conscious of these experienced 
conditions. The human mind refuses to think of 
these experiences as possible apart from some being 
capable of them. Therefore, human experiences — 
first cognized in consciousness and afterward inter- 
preted and systematized — prove the existence of 
an abiding something which, throughout all the 
changes of these experiences, changes only as the 
reflex influence of its experience makes possible. It 
retains its identity, but shows progress of develop- 
ment according to its experiences. This retention 
of identity and nature through differing stages of 
growth is the most interesting and suggestive fact 
of human progress. This something which retains 
its nature and identity, while changing its stages of 
culture by means of its multiform experiences, is 
what we call the human soul (or spirit). This, in 
concrete form, each of us recognizes as his own real 
self, to which each of us constantly refers by the 
various forms of the personal pronoun of the first 
person, — " I," " me," " my," and " mine." Soul prog- 
ress (or growth or culture) toward perfection is 
possible because the soul is able thus to preserve 
its identity while undergoing experiences which 



SELF-REALIZATION 205 

• 

strengthen, purify, exalt, and ennoble it, — under- 
going change in its stages of progress or its condition, 
but never losing its individual identity or its human 
nature. 

These possible and actual experiences not only 
prove the existence of a sentient self, but they are 
the best revealers of its innate or inherent nature. 
The whole nature of a being is included in or ex- 
pressed by what it can do and what it can become 
through such doing (experience). 

The best reflective study of human experiences 
shows that they are all capable of being included in 
three great classes, — thinking, feeling, and willing 
(using these terms in their most inclusive sense 
or application). The endless combinations of these 
make up human experiences, so far as experiences 
have been reported or in any way known. Since 
no others have yet been discovered and since none 
seem necessary to a rounded life, it is believed 
no others are possible. If others are ever discov- 
ered, it will be because some new environment 
offers opportunity for exercise of native powers 
never before called into action; or because a high 
development of known powers makes possible new 
experiences. In the latter case, however, these higher 
experiences, developing out of known powers, would 
not indicate new capacities but rather new combi- 
nations of activities of present powers. In the former 



2o6 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

case there is no suggestion that even a new environ- 
ment would do more than increase the activities of 
present powers. There are further arguments, not 
pertinent here, which render it practically certain that 
the human being will never have any experience not 
included in thinking, feeling, and willing, and their 
infinite possibilities of combination. 

Human experiences, reflectively studied, not only 
prove the existence of an experiencing agent, not 
only reveal the total nature and the whole possibil- 
ity of an experiencing agent, but they reveal a 
universe of things which these experiences concern, 
— the occasion, not the cause, of their birth. Ex- 
pressed differently, the experiencing self as agent can 
have no experiences except as these experiences con- 
cern something upon which this self has employed 
its powers in some one or more of its characteristic 
activities. Thinking, feeling, and willing always con- 
cern something without the existence of which these 
particular experiences would never have been pos- 
sible. The range of objects with which the human 
soul may thus concern itself in experience is as wide 
as the universe itself, and the multiplicity of pos- 
sible experiences almost baffles thought. Philosoph- 
ically all things are first divided into the self and 
the not self, the latter being all the universe ex- 
cept the individual soul or self. But the self may 
employ its powers on itself, studying its own nature, 



SELF-REALIZATION 207 

as we are to some extent doing now. The whole 
universe, then, including the self, is the theater of 
the self's activity or experience. At one stage of 
thinking this distinction of self and not self was im- 
portant, but it is now so fully inwrought into all 
systems of experience, and so thoroughly implied in 
all experience, as to be of little further significance, 
taking its place at best among the things granted 
without discussion. 

It is well-nigh impossible to set off human ex- 
periences into absolutely separate provinces, because 
of the almost infinite network of relationships of the 
almost infinite varieties of human experience. Philos- 
ophers of all ages have sought lines of absolute 
demarcation, finding them nowhere except in some 
departments of mathematical thinking. Provisional 
classification is helpful in thinking, however, though 
the distinctions suggested are neither absolute nor 
final. 

In a loose classification, then, we may say that 
there are three great divisions of the universe, with 
reference to the experiences of which they are the 
occasion: namely (i) matter and its qualities; (2) 
the self and its aspirations; and (3) society and its 
functions. 

The first gives rise to the sciences of mathematics, 
biology (including geology), and physical science 
(physics and chemistry); the second to psychology, 



2o8 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

epistemology, metaphysics and logic, and religion; 
the third to sociology, politics (including history), 
ethics, and aesthetics (including literature). Thus we 
have marked off twelve great regions of possible ex- 
perience for a human being, each province herein 
named being capable of multiplying subdivisions. 
All subjects of study, however minute, whether in 
school or out of school, are but subdivisions of some 
one of these large provinces of human experience. 
Daily lessons of school children are but still more 
minute subdivisions; and the changes which the 
teacher hopes to produce in pupils from day to day 
are but minute fractions of the total effect made 
upon the human being who exercises himself in the 
thinking, feeling, and choosing, which constitute his 
experiences in these several provinces. To say that 
the human mind is capable of these experiences is 
to tell much of its nature ; to know well what these 
experiences mean to a human being is to know well 
human nature. To see what all these experiences 
mean for the development of the individual or for 
human culture, is possible only after one has watched 
the race go through these experiences and noticed 
what the effect has been on the self which has 
had them. This study can be made only in large 
ways through the study of history. From this 
point of view customs, laws, institutions, art, litera- 
ture, science, psychology, logic, metaphysics, — all 



SELF-REALIZATION 209 

take on new meaning. They give the key to the 
progress of the race through the ages, show the in- 
heritance of the individual in the work of the race, 
give the basis for determining which of all these 
experiences lead most directly and rapidly toward 
perfection, and enable us better and better to under- 
stand what human perfection is. And indeed one's 
judgment on such questions, other things being 
equal, will be proportionate to one's thorough mas- 
tery of the meaning of these great disciplines of 
human life. Going through these experiences is a 
part of self-realization. 

Many volumes could be written in further expla- 
nation of how the experiences described constitute 
civilization, and how their mastery by an individ- 
ual leads to his development and tends toward the 
development in him of all his best possibilities. 

A study of the history of education, had we time 
to follow it now, would show that in different coun- 
tries and different ages men have been selecting the 
most significant experiences of these various great 
disciplines, arranging them in courses of study and 
learning the best ways of presenting them to the 
young. And we should see in such survey how dif- 
ferent nations have chosen different experiences, as 
they believed in different aims ; and how, by study 
and comparison, the race as a whole has clarified its 
vision as to the nature of human perfection itself, 



2IO EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

and as to which experiences most surely and quickly 
bring the human being into a fair degree of develop- 
ment toward that standard. 

Comparing this first definition which we have 
been explaining with the second of the series, " The 
true aim of education is the perfection of the indi- 
vidual human being," we note that the latter varies 
from the former only in the emphasis of a single idea, 
implied but not emphasized in the first. This is the 
idea that the educative process finds its realization 
of the aim in the individual. While one may speak 
of the education of the race, the intellectual develop- 
ment of the nation or of a people, these terms but 
represent abstractions. There is no general culture 
except that which is first secured and practiced by 
individuals. In social efficiency, while the nation 
looks for assistance of the whole people, the effi- 
ciency is that of individuals. While citizenship looks 
to public service, the individual citizen gives the 
tone to the state. The phrases " education for so- 
cial efficiency," "education for citizenship," and the 
like, are expressions which emphasize a certain se- 
lection of experiences which the individual should 
receive in his education ; but it is always the in- 
dividual who is to be educated. Institutions like 
society or the state have no right to exist unless 
they are able to safeguard and return to the individ- 
ual influences for his personal betterment. The 



SELF-REALIZATION 2 1 1 

development education seeks is always that of the 
individual ; and if the aid of human organizations 
be sought in education, it is always because such 
organization is helpful in its reflex influence, at 
least to the individual. 

The third definition, " The true aim of education 
is to bring to perfection all the capacities for good 
inherent in each individual human being," attempts 
some explanation with the changing of the emphasis. 
Retaining in prominence the idea of individuality, 
it attempts to suggest that not all experiences are 
educative in the best sense, but that some expe- 
riences leave the individual in a worse condition 
than he was in before he had them. These capabil- 
ities to be changed for better or for worse, which 
are inherent in human nature, are here technically 
called capacities; and the definition attempts to 
show that only those experiences which lead their 
subject toward the good, or perfection, are to be 
included in the set exercises of the educational proc- 
ess. This definition retains the same standard of 
perfection as before, but explains the dangers of 
human nature and guards the educational aim and 
practice by denoting a choice of subject matter. 
It merely amplifies in a helpful way what is fully 
implied in the two preceding definitions. 

The fourth statement, " The true aim of education 
is to develop into the greatest possible efficiency 



212 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the innate capacities of the human being," embodies 
the explanation and the emphasis of both the second 
and the third in one proposition. The fifth defini- 
tion given, " The true aim of education is to develop 
the self-activity of the immature human being into 
self-consciousness and self-direction, with self-perfec- 
tion or self-realization as the standard," holds the same 
standard of perfection and emphasizes the idea that 
it is the perfection of the individual. But it also 
attempts still other explanations of the nature of 
the human being, and incidentally lays the basis for 
methods of education. We note the idea that edu- 
cation has to do with the immature, that is, with those 
who have not yet had all the experiences needed to 
lead to perfection. The definition assumes that in 
such a state the being is self-active, and implies that 
although self-activity as an attribute is proper at 
the beginning of a course, this power, in order to 
continue of worth, must so change its form as not 
to lose its spontaneity. In other words, the growing 
element of self-consciousness must absorb the self- 
activity into itself and give it tone ; and both these 
attributes must take on the acquired power of self- 
direction. There is a suggestion here that self-con- 
sciousness and self-direction are not wholly different 
things, or states, or attributes, from self-activity, but 
are higher stages of development of self-activity 
itself, wherein it need not lose its original nature. 



SELF-REALIZATION 2 1 3 

but may gain new value by its own higher de- 
velopment. There is much truth in the theory 
that the higher powers of man are really not new in 
any special sense, but that they are higher stages of 
development for capacities which in the infant or 
child are known by other names. This definition 
also suggests method to some extent by the use of 
the word " develop," thereby indicating that the end 
of education does not lie in mere cultivation of the 
memory, but in the evoking of power, — the making 
of the self of greater real worth in itself, rather than 
a mere receptacle for information. 

The sixth proposition, " The true aim of education 
is the transforming of the self-active, irresponsible, 
immature human being into a responsible, self- 
directive person," varies somewhat in emphasis from 
the others. It keeps the thought closely upon the 
being to be educated, emphasizes the changes made 
in his condition and characteristics by his educative 
experiences, and calls attention imperiously to the 
element of self-direction entering into the disposi- 
tion. It emphasizes especially the absence, in youth, 
of the sense of responsibility or self-direction, and 
tries to show how valuable this element of character 
is when achieved. By the use of the word " person " it 
attempts to call up the picture of a culture that has 
become well balanced through selected disciplines 
or experiences. 



214 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

The seventh, " The true aim of education is to 
develop the self-activity of the individual into its 
higher correlatives of self-consciousness and self- 
direction by processes controlled by correct ideas of 
self-perfection," is a repetition of the fifth in different 
language, with only slightly varying emphasis. 

The eighth definition, " The true aim of education 
is to cause the self-active, immature individual to 
enlarge and enrich his experience till he becomes 
capable of directing his own conduct and disposed to 
make the most of his opportunities," is quite differ- 
ent in form and emphasis from any of the others, 
and merits a special word of explanation. 

Notice that it holds to self-activity as the special 
attribute, to immaturity before experience, to the 
individual as the true subject of education, as do 
different ones preceding. But it does more than 
this. It attempts to explain processes and to direct 
methods; it selects and adds experiences till the 
self-activity is transformed into the higher capability 
of self-direction ; and it especially emphasizes the 
fact that a large and important part of this power 
of self-direction lies in the disposition to put forth 
effort. Now all disposition or tendency toward self- 
action in specified directions develops under motive, 
and the strongest part of motive is feeling. The 
ideal life which furnishes motive for conduct is 
dependent not alone on experiences of knowledge 



SELF-REALIZATION 215 

but also, and more definitely, on experiences of de- 
sire, hope, possible joy, and satisfaction of various 
kinds. It not only looks to self-criticism as to the 
past, but to self-seeking of new experiences which 
offer hope of improved condition and greater worth. 
This definition suggests a method of education that 
shall furnish the human soul with such aspirations, 
hopes, and desires as shall actually lead to action 
in the direction of the higher life. The ideal life, 
self-directed and self-motived, is distinctly human^ 
distinguishing man from all other animals. The 
seeking after perfection which realizes itself in living 
a life of selected experiences, with a view to infinite 
progress toward an always receding and always 
self-perfecting ideal, is impossible except for the 
individual human being. The capacity so to live 
distinguishes man as a candidate for individual 
immortality, to be spent in bringing about self- 
perfection. 

Thus the education of a human being is precedent 
to the education of a pure spirit, continued after death 
under conditions very different from those of human 
education. And yet the two segments of experience 
are so related and correlated that some of the omis- 
sions of significant and necessary experiences to 
human perfection may doubtless be partially rem- 
edied by processes of spiritual experience in the 
future life. 



2i6 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

We have already seen that only the individual 
can be educated, that is, started and helped on the 
road toward perfection. We have also seen that 
the individual is educated by and through his expe- 
riences. These experiences are possible to him only 
through self-exercise, or self-activity, which is the 
primal characteristic of his nature. These self-activi- 
ties will be concerned with the details of the objects 
of experience in the twelve great departments of pos- 
sible human experiences referred to on a previous 
page as " the twelve great disciplines of life." We are 
now to give special attention to a particular phase 
of culture heretofore but dimly suggested, but which 
is often one of the most important of less well-under- 
stood results of right processes of education. I refer 
to the changed state of the individual self as a result 
of experience, in so far as such new state takes on 
something of permanence. Henceforth the self has 
new value or worth simply because it now exists in 
this new state. To illustrate : A definitely guided 
process of self-activity in thinking upon a definitely 
selected object of thought or theme may lead the 
self-activity from a state of comparative ignorance 
in reference to such object into a state of intelligence 
in regard to the same. Now the passage from a 
state of ignorance to a state of intelligence is not in 
any sense a change of human nature, — only an 
actualization of what was always potentially in 



SELF-REALIZATION 217 

human nature. The individual self has acquired 
new worth, but has not changed its nature. It has 
had a new experience, and through that experience 
has come into possession of its own, — what was 
always its right, always its possibility, — intelligence. 
It seems almost like a new self, but it is in reality 
the same self in a more advanced stage of develop- 
ment. It has gone one step farther toward its own 
perfection, that is, its own actualization, — the reali- 
zation of its own possibility of almost infinite intel- 
ligence. It has moved a full stage forward in 
self-realization. As the state of intelligence, as con- 
trasted with the previous state of ignorance, com- 
mends itself to the soul which experiences it, a new 
aspiration is born in the soul. The soul has thus a 
new self-revelation, not only of its own possibilities, 
but that these new conditions are good. Thus it 
is getting clearer and clearer conceptions of what 
constitutes soul perfection on one side of its na- 
ture, and clearer and clearer notions of what it 
must do to realize its possibilities in this direction. 
In the chapter on Self-revelation something was 
said of the process by which the soul's capacities 
are little by little made known to the individual 
through his own experiences ; and especially of how 
the whole material world is the means of making 
the child conscious of his capacities for the enjoy- 
ment of beauty. We see, in the larger view now 



2i8 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

possible after our extended analysis, that this devel- 
opment of self-appreciation is essential to the later 
development of the judgment as to what is best as 
a matter of human advancement toward perfection. 
Even the satisfaction of intelligence is a part of 
that happiness which always accompanies progress, 
though it is not its acme. We see also that all 
the universe except the individual self (that is, all 
the not-self) is means to the self-revelation and to 
this self-urgency toward higher and higher forms 
of life. 

All this is seen much more readily when the 
experience is not wholly intellectual and the result- 
ing state not purely a matter of intelligence. It may 
be a matter of moral quality, — a state of the soul 
which involves questions of right or wrong. Soul 
conditions of love, hope, joy, courage, altruism, self- 
realization, responsibility, self-sacrifice, are of higher 
worth than mere intelligence. Though in most cases 
these conditions are dependent on some degree of the 
latter for their right development, the experiences 
which bring them about are never wholly intellec- 
tual. That happy mingling of the intellectual, the 
emotional, and the volitional, which characterizes a 
good day's school education, finally brings the soul, 
at first temporarily but frequently, and at last per- 
manently, into these states ; and the soul which has 
acquired these has thereby increased its worth. 



SELF-REALIZATION 219 

Where, through further right Hving in school or 
out of school, but preferably in a good school, college, 
or university, the individual has reconstructed these 
states of intellectual, emotional, and volitional experi- 
ence into ideals, — standards of life and conduct, — 
he has moved a long way onward in self-realization. 
The reflex states of self-satisfaction which these very 
conditions themselves induce, go a long way toward 
commending them as standards of perfection for a 
human being. Therefore, while the person so grow- 
ing or developing may not be able to say precisely 
what changes have come to him in the way of " views 
of life " or " notions of human perfection," yet hence- 
forward he practically believes more and more fully 
in human capacity for noble things, and he has 
clearer and clearer practical views of human perfec- 
tion. He has, moreover, created for himself stronger 
and stronger motives urging him to live the higher 
life. Little by little right living and right experi- 
ences are teaching him what hufnan perfection is, 
and are urging to self-realization. 

The soul's power to recognize true self-advance- 
ment and to distinguish this state from new gratifi- 
cation of appetites or satisfaction of present felt needs, 
is one of the noblest distinctions of man. Self-criti- 
cism by self-created standards, which carry with them 
their own justification, is the prerogative of man alone. 
Conceptions of a life higher and nobler than the one 



220 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

now being lived, and aspirations and longing for such 
life, the subordination of present gratification for the 
sake of greater progress, — these happily combined 
show man in the process of transforming his self- 
activity, self-revelation, and self-direction into reali- 
zation, — self-realization. That the standards which 
thus commend themselves and command respect 
and obedience are imperfect does not matter; they 
are better and higher than the present stage of liv- 
ing, and point the direction in which self-progress 
lies. Obedience to these standards enlarges and en- 
riches experience, making it possible thereafter to 
supersede them with worthier creations, which in 
their turn shall command like confidence and obedi- 
ence. Thus does the action and reaction of experi- 
ence lead toward perfection itself. 

It is to be noted here that while the native power 
to create these standards and to guide one's conduct 
by them is inherent in each individual human soul, 
the occasion for their incitement is always found 
in the environment. This is especially true in early 
life, — in childhood. The soul, self-active though 
it be, cannot create standards of life and conduct 
out of nothing. In its environment (using this 
word in an inclusive sense) the soul finds the occa- 
sion of its experiences, and out of its experiences 
come the suggestions and materials for ideal-making. 
How important then that children should live in 



SELF-REALIZATION 221 

ennobling environment! How especially important 
that the school, which furnishes so large a part of the 
child's environment, should be worthy of its mission ! 
The child's tendency to imitate his teachers and 
schoolmates is imbedded in the ideal-making bent 
of his mind. The child finds the other life — the 
life he is not living — exemplified by teachers and 
mates. Whether the life be better or worse than his 
own, in many cases the circumstances lead him to 
look upon it with favor; and further, presently, 
though sometimes but temporarily, such standards 
commend themselves; and the law of tendency, so 
strong in human nature, — to become like what one 
admires and longs to be, — soon starts the move- 
ment of imitation. How necessary, then, especially 
in early life, that the child be surrounded with persons 
whose characters and conduct are really worthy of 
imitation ! I have said " in early life," for, as a matter 
of fact, it matters much less after character and habits 
are fixed. When experience has been large and rich, 
the person has material in his life out of which to 
build up his ideals independently of present environ- 
ment. Indeed, the crowning power of human nature 
is that of being able to live the ideal life of purity 
and aspiration in the midst of squalor, vice, and 
crime. This power of self-defense against the low 
and vile, this power to rise superior to environment 
and live the ideal life, marks the being created in the 



222 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

image of God. He who has actually attained this 
power, whose ideals are of such lofty worth as to 
inspire confidence and command obedience, has 
achieved self-development or self-realization in a 
large measure. Further advance is simply depend- 
ent on the enlargement of experience and the im- 
provement of standards. 

It is impossible to overstate the importance of 
right education and care of children in their early 
years. If first experiences excite noble aspirations, 
if they furnish the elements of ideal beauty, ideal 
goodness, and ideal truth, then the early ideals will 
contain these elements; and if some considerable 
advance in ideal-making of the right sort be made 
in early years, there is little danger that other or 
lower standards will prove attractive. One who has 
really seen heaven will hardly be satisfied with a 
lesser paradise. 

It is, of course, equally necessary to guard against 
the lowering influence of vicious examples. The 
power to rise to worthier and worthier grades of liv- 
ing through one's own choice implies the possi- 
bility that one may choose the lower way. Perfect 
freedom to rise requires as perfect freedom to de- 
scend. Nothing can relieve one from the responsi- 
bility of choosing one's own course in life, but many 
influences may enter in to cloud the vision and dis- 
tract the judgment. It is the province of education 



SELF-REALIZATION 223 

to offer, judiciously, opportunities for right experi- 
ences and to apply proper stimulation to the growth 
of right ideals. 

The reasons offered in these preceding pages lead 
me therefore to repeat that the universal or fixed or 
ultimate aim of education is human perfectio7i. It is 
clear that this can mean only the perfection of the 
individual, — every individual, all individuals, since 
good, a degree of perfection, can be realized, that is 
made real as a good, only in individuals capable of 
experiencing this good or perfection. All talk about 
the good or perfection of the race, or of society, or of 
any other organization of individuals can have mean- 
ing only when considered as the perfection of an 
instrument, — very valuable, it may be, but still an 
instrument. There still remains the question " Good 
for what ? " showing that the real end or aim lies in 
something else ; while individual persons capable of 
experiencing good, are an end in themselves. Their 
own perfection justifies itself as a worthy aim. I do 
not mean a selfish perfection of one's self, but the 
entirely altruistic perfection of all. The teacher's 
teaching works for the good of others, but always 
for individuals capable of experiencing the new good 
wrought in them by their own reactions on the oppor- 
tunities offered by the teacher beyond such as would 
have come to them without the school or teacher. 
The teacher, by educating all the people in a 



224 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

community, doubtless creates a better community 
because better persons will make a better public 
opinion ; but better public opinion is worth nothing 
until it be used as an instrument to bring some 
good to some one. 

It may be suggested that persons are instruments, 
too. So they are, — potent instruments for good or 
evil to other persons ; but they are not merely in- 
struments. They are capable besides of realizing 
good in themselves and for themselves, — capable 
of experiences which are ends in themselves for all 
worthy efforts in education. Thus we see how purely 
personal the process of education is ; how it is always 
engaged with some individual or individuals, endeav- 
oring to induce him or them to transform himself or 
themselves into something better, — something wiser 
or saner, more efficient, sympathetic, virtuous, active, 
or refined, — something that shall sum up more of 
good than before. And this good is to be appreciated 
or experienced by these same individuals in and for 
themselves as well as for others. We should not deal 
with abstractions in education. 

However, it is just here again that we see how 
complex a thing the educative process is. So many 
things may become a good, — perfection is analyzable 
into such a multitude of elements, — each offering 
itself as an immediate aim, that one is liable to be 
confused over the infinite variety of possibilities in 



SELF-REALIZATION 225 

the case. There is such HkeHhood of differences of 
judgment as to which of these elements are most 
important, or most important now, or most important 
under a given set of circumstances, that correct con- 
clusion seems almost impossible. This difficulty, how- 
ever, merely shows the complexity of the theme and 
the careful study of the subject demanded for the 
highest success in teaching. The history of races 
and nations shows how slowly man has reached his 
present conception of what is good or best, and how 
often he has mistaken a lower good for a higher 
one, or even mistaken an evil for a good. But slowly, 
through the ages, he has made many distinctions, 
discarded many evils, distinguished the varying de- 
grees of good, and has often directed his attention 
to higher things as against the false attractions of 
evils or lesser goods. And the young must repeat 
some of this history in personal development, fortu- 
nately in our time greatly aided by wise teachers. 

These considerations also show why even in our 
time there is still such difference of view as to what 
the present processes of education should be. Each 
theorist is intent on the statement and enforcement 
of what he, from his particular point of view, sees to 
be the most important. So it happens, then, that 
from persons of partial views we have statements of 
special aims, perhaps true in themselves, but un- 
true as to the relative importance assigned them in 



226 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the educative process. Teachers who are speciaKsts 
are particularly subject to this misconception of the 
true aims of education. The particular good which 
the mastery of their subject confers, they place at the 
center, as Ptolemy insisted that the earth was at the 
center of the solar system. The chief facts which 
Ptolemy taught about the earth are still believed, 
but the relative position and importance of the earth 
among the other bodies of the solar system are now 
known to be different from the teachings of his day. 
The facts taught by the specialist may be true and 
important, but the stress which his insistence places 
on these facts may teach an untruth as to relative 
importance. That particular good may not be the 
good most needed by some particular pupil at some 
particular time, and under the particular set of cir- 
cumstances involved. Teachers must avoid these 
errors in practice by saner views and more compre- 
hensive understanding of aims. 

The same complexity of aim and the liability to 
error in one's point of view reflect themselves in 
every curriculum. The subjects selected, the relative 
time given to each, the subheads chosen for mastery 
in each branch, — all these are the result of one's com- 
prehension or lack of comprehension of the true aim. 
Many persons have such slight knowledge of ulti- 
mate aims that they are blinded by special or imme- 
diate aims. Many have so little appreciation of the 



SELF-REALIZATION 227 

possibilities of human life that they lose sight of all 
general or ultimate aims and descend to the realiza- 
tion of some immediate aim, which, when realized, 
may work evil to the very ones whose good was 
sought in its mastery. This tendency is manifest in 
the founding of trade schools in places where some 
one industry dominates a community. The aim in such 
a school is not only immediate but partial also, for 
it appeals to only a fraction of the nature of the child. 
In many cases these trade schools prepare the young 
person to earn but a pittance in an industry that is 
not permanent ; and whatever education he receives 
binds him the more closely to the occupation he 
learns, thus shutting off the possibility that he will 
ever take up any more remunerative work. He has 
been educated into a rut, which grows deeper and 
deeper as his life moves backward and forward in 
the groove formed for him. At first it seems a kind- 
ness to him to fit him for earning money, but the 
" good " vanishes when it is seen that the money 
earned in this way will enable him to live only in 
this condition ; while every additional day spent in 
the routine duties he has learned, makes him less 
and less capable of advancing to any superior kind of 
labor. Employers everywhere are urging such edu- 
cation for employees, not, however, really for the good 
of the employees. Misguided parents are urging 
such education for their children, so that they may 



228 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

earn a little money at once, ignorant or careless of 
the slaver}- to which this educative process at last 
leads. 

The trade school is bound to come in this coun- 
try. It remains for level-headed educators to insist 
that whenever industrial education is undertaken 
by the state, enough general intelligence shall be 
mingled with the manual dexterity- secured to make 
the young person greater than his job. His earning 
power must be made sufficient to assure him finan- 
cial independence, at least to a degree that will give 
him true self-respect; and his intelligence must be 
made sufficient to permit his changing his occupa- 
tion when opportunities for advancement offer them- 
selves. The curse of the ignorant laborer, or of the 
workman specially trained on a low level, is his 
inabilit}- to change his job. 

Between this extreme view of the trade school, on 
the one hand, and the old-time idea of a classical edu- 
cation gained chiefly through the dead languages, 
on the other, lie all grades and kinds of educational 
ideals. Educational reformers are disposed to give 
undue emphasis to special subjects and methods. 
All who think and write on this great theme are 
more or less bound by their own experiences or 
modes of thinking, by their reading, or by the com- 
munit}' interests in the midst of which they live. 
Few writers have the catholicity- of culture which 



SELF-REALIZATION 229 

frees them from some bias of personal \new. It is 
true that frequently a real contribution to the facts 
out of which a science of education may eventually 
be made, is obtained from a specialist who is exploit- 
ing his own branch ; but the average teacher must 
correlate this -v^nth other branches of the curriculum 
before he can reach a \^'ise judgment as to its rela- 
tive place and importance as an instrument of pub- 
lic education. In a countr)' like ours there is always 
the question of arrested development to be dealt 
with. There are always questions of moral worth to 
be considered, — not alone worth to society, but a per- 
son's own moral worth to himself as well. In a coun- 
tr}^ in which political indi\'idualit}^ and personalit}'' 
are guaranteed and preser\-ed, there is always to be 
considered the bearing of public education upon the 
personalit}^ of the pupil to make him a worthy being 
for his own uses as well as for those of society. 

Free public education is doing much in this coun- 
tr}' to keep societ}^ flexible, to make the lines of de- 
marcation between classes movable, and to render 
it easy for the person with power of initiative to rise 
from one grade of living to a higher one. An}- sys- 
tem of education which tends to shut in the \'iew or 
to circumscribe the interests of a child, does the indi- 
\-idual an injur}- which no general good to the com- 
munit}' can excuse. Any branch of study, therefore, 
\vhose aim is specific, needs to be used carefully in 



230 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

conjunction with others whose aim, if specific, is dif- 
ferent in its final effect on the growing character of 
the pupil. How far, therefore, to push the pursuit of 
a special branch is always a matter of grave concern. 
Sufficient proficiency to guarantee self-respect in ref- 
erence to attainment is always a necessity for right 
effect on character, but a real danger lies in complete 
absorption in single studies. Fortunately the youth- 
ful student usually protects himself from the well- 
meant overstress of teachers by a natural rebound 
of interest and diversity of occupation. But when 
his teacher, his community, and his family combine 
on some single line, leading immediately into an occu- 
pation, the student's native abilities are ignored, his 
possibilities are limited, and his usefulness to others 
and himself is sadly lessened. Sometimes, for the 
very reason that one's proposed occupation tends to 
routine within narrow limits, it is desirable to liberal- 
ize somewhat the preparation, so that not even the 
limiting effect of untoward employment may en- 
tirely destroy the joy of living. A workingman is 
always to be distinguished from a mmi working. The 
man should be made able to swing his job and have 
some mentality left. The danger of meager education 
is that the job may be able to dominate the man. 

The question here belongs, in a way, to statesmen 
and publicists, because the results affect the possi- 
bilities of political and social life. But governments 



SELF-REALIZATION 231 

exist, in the final analysis, for the people, — all the 
people, — and society has no rational reason for exist- 
ence unless its beneficent influences shall, by reflex 
action, confer good on individuals capable of the joy 
of living. The question is at last, then, one which 
takes into account the individual in all his capacities 
for life, — all individuals, not alone as constituents of 
society, but as living, suffering, enjoying entities. It 
is peculiarly the question for the educator, and, in 
some of its aspects, for the educational philosopher ; 
but it is an inevitable question for the individual 
room teacher, in daily contact with individual chil- 
dren, each with his possible course before him and 
the possibility of moral worth and personal enjoy- 
ment within him. If all teachers may not spend the 
necessary time to master in philosophical terms all 
the subtleties of the problem, they may, at least, be 
so indoctrinated with such sane views of life, conduct, 
and aims, that each teacher's subconscious character 
will prevent great errors in daily practice. Just so 
far as teachers are enlightened, liberalized, and made 
reasonable will the daily practices of the schoolroom 
everywhere gradually take on the characteristics of 
sanity and reason. 

It is easy to be an enthusiast for some single inter- 
est, if meanwhile the mind be withdrawn from other 
themes. Enthusiasm is an essential element, too, of 
personal progress. But sanity of judgment is of 



232 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

larger import, if of slower growth ; and sanity of judg- 
ment seldom results from one-sided or restricted 
development. The aim of education, therefore, 
should include a suiHcient number of elements to 
prevent arrested development or biased judgments 
of life and opportunity. 

Many interesting side questions grow out of the 
exaggerations of specialists and enthusiasts in certain 
departments of education. There is time here for 
reference to but one. The case in point is the claim 
of teachers of manual training that they must have 
small classes, as they cannot give the necessary atten- 
tion to detailed criticism of the work of individual 
pupils in a large class. My comparison here is not 
with instruction in certain subjects, as, for instance, 
in music, or in lecture recitations, when larger num- 
bers offer a new force, supplementing instruction or 
making it more effective; but with corresponding 
subjects like arithmetic, reading, or grammar, — sub- 
jects in which there is also involved in the aim a 
certain skill in execution, according to standards of 
correctness. When carefully examined, it will be seen 
that it is no more possible to reach accuracy in math- 
ematics, or skill in the use of oral English, in large 
classes, than it is to secure accuracy and finish in 
wood turning or joint making in manual training. 
The difference lies chiefly in the ease with which 
tests are applied, in the persistent presence of the 



SELF-REALIZATION 233 

mistake In the misshapen product of the lathe or in 
the ill-fitting joint, and in the further fact that the fac- 
tory and the manufacturer constantly enforce a dis- 
agreeable comparison. If, for instance, the mistakes in 
oral English of our students were as impressive to the 
ear as these other mistakes are to the eye ; if they were 
sounding in our memory for days afterward ; if the 
elegant use of English were constantly heard in un- 
mistakable comparison ; and if we were fined so many 
dollars for each infraction of good usage made by our 
pupils, then would this forceful distinction vanish, and 
either manual-training teachers would have to lower 
their standards of finish, or teachers of mathematics 
and English would be required to raise theirs, result- 
ing in a rearrangement of classes as to size. The teach- 
ers of manual training have been able for the most 
part to maintain their claims because of the objec- 
tivity of their standards and because the people who 
have supplied the money for manual-training plants 
have believed that all manual training which results 
in work below factory standards of finish is wasted, 
because not immediately available in the factory. If 
similar standards should be forced on us in other 
subjects with like cogency, we should be obliged to 
rectify our errors of classification. 

It will thus be seen that in attempting to cause 
the pupil to go through the educative process which 
tends to make him realize his possibilities, — that is, 



234 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

to carry out in himself the process of self-realization, 
— the teacher has to take into account the very com- 
plex nature of the child as a person, and to think over 
the wide range of possible good which may come to 
such an individual in this development. It is because 
the child is in his own nature complex — that is, be- 
cause he has large and varied possibilities — that the 
aim of education itself is complex, even though al- 
ways personal. The point of view also discloses the 
fact that the process of self-realization in the pupil 
is intimately related to what is known as educative 
values of the different branches of subject matter. 
In fact, there are three ideas which must always be 
coordinated in thought by the educational philos- 
opher : namely, the nature of the child ; self-realiza- 
tion as made possible by this nature of the child; 
and the different branches of study as instrumental- 
ities, — instrumentalities in the sense that they are 
temptingly placed before the pupil in order to evoke 
his self-activity in their mastery. 

It is with these three ideas and their multiform 
relations that educational reformers have always been 
engaged. Whenever an educator has taken up any 
one of these topics for discussion, he has been 
quickly led to see the need of relating it to the other 
two. For instance, when Herbert Spencer stated the 
aim of education to be "preparation for complete 
living," he followed this by a discussion of what 



SELF-REALIZATION 235 

knowledge is of most worth. He saw that in order 
to have human beings reahze themselves so that 
they could live completely, it was essential that they 
should have the proper educative experiences. It 
was not long before he found that he must examine 
somewhat carefully the various branches of study in 
the curriculum of the school. In this process of 
evaluation of subject matter he was led to place an 
inordinate value upon the practical sciences. This 
was purely and simply because of the limited mean- 
ing which he put into the expression " complete 
living." Indeed, before he had completed his exam- 
ination of the various branches, he saw the necessity 
for a higher conception of life than his own prin- 
ciples of evolution had thus far implied. In many of 
his later writings there is an evident tendency to en- 
large the meaning of his conception of life, although 
to the last, in my opinion, he perseveres in attribu- 
ting to human beings but a small fraction of their 
possibilities in the joy of living. 

Other great writers have treated the same sub- 
jects. Herbart gives a different evaluation of studies 
from that assigned to them by Spencer, while many 
modern writers have differed more or less from both 
of them. And yet, after all, it is the same old ques- 
tion, — the nature of the human being to be educated, 
the aim of education (which is his complete self- 
realization), and what are the best instrumentalities. 



236 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

Without attempting to go over all the ground em- 
bodied in such studies as those of Spencer, Herbart, 
Froebel, and many equally able modern students, it 
seems appropriate to examine a few of the branches 
in the light of the specific aim of education here de- 
veloped, namely, the realization in each individual 
of the possibilities which his nature confers on him. 
It is of course well understood and thoroughly im- 
plied in this discussion that no person reaches such 
end as this during school life, nor perhaps during 
the period of his natural life. It is implied, however, 
that he moves toward this end in every really valu- 
able step in education ; that, as the generations pass, 
saner and more reasonable views are embalmed in 
history and literature and made available for indi- 
viduals in the next generation ; and that with better 
views and aims of education, with better-trained 
teachers, with better-organized schools, and with 
better communities in which to live, the individuals 
of succeeding generations may advance in a marked 
way toward more complete self-realization, which, by 
the way, is only a higher method of statement of 
Herbert Spencer's view of complete living. Such aim 
is always a movable ideal, receding toward the infinite 
as the realization progresses. The value of the proc- 
ess of realization already worked out is not lessened, 
however, by this recession of the ideal, which is due 
to the changing focus of the mind as it adapts itself 



SELF-REALIZATION 237 

to some higher element of the aim which was 
implied, but not until now so clearly seen. 

Herbert Spencer's discussion of educational values 
was written in the earlier years of his authorship, be- 
fore either he or Darwin had seen the full effect of the 
doctrine of evolution, especially as it modifies modes 
of thought in other than biological provinces. It is 
not surprising to find him giving undue prominence 
to matters dealing with the external world. Evolu- 
tion was first seen in its material aspects, and the 
possibilities resulting in its recognition in other 
fields of thought were not then even surmised, either 
by the general public or by the authors of the 
theory. In some respects Spencer was far in ad- 
vance of Darwin, especially in seeing that all this 
new way of thinking must eventually affect stand- 
ards of living. But as yet Spencer was dominated 
by his studies in mathematics and science. In fact, 
after he had assumed the role of philosopher he was 
still a prejudiced witness because of his early edu- 
cation. It is a curious phenomenon to see the man 
who first of all stated and defended the principle of 
evolution, failing to recognize its application in his 
own life. Even in his later years, when he had 
caught universality of view, he held to many of his 
early prejudices, thus vitiating many of his conclu- 
sions. Rarely did he attempt to correct the views 
expressed in his early writings, although some of 



238 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

his later ones contradicted them. This is partly ex- 
plained, no doubt, by the fact that in his old age he 
was harassed by the fear that he might not live to 
finish the outline of his system of philosophy, and 
consequently he gave little attention to the revision 
of his earlier work. Had he been spared longer and 
been endowed with physical health, he might have 
taken a real interest in revising his earlier writings 
to make them accord with the more nearly universal 
standards of his later life. 

Yet it happens sometimes that an extreme state- 
ment of a case secures a hearing that might not be 
accorded to a more moderate claim ; and it was a 
great benefit to the cause of education to have the 
relationship of the progress of science to the develop- 
ment of civilization set forth with such clearness 
and power as were shown in his essay on education 
entitled "What Knowledge is of Most Worth." 
This essay was a little later expanded into what ap- 
peared as the first third of his book entitled " Edu- 
cation: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical." In this 
expanded form it has been widely read, and I believe 
has been more influential than any other similar 
writing in instigating and directing later writers on 
the evolution of subject matter. In many cases its 
greatest value has been in bringing out the expres- 
sion of opposite views, which his statement has 
suggested. 



SELF-REALIZATION 239 

The special strength of Spencer's argument for 
the teaching of science Hes in his showing how 
marvelously the advances made in such studies react 
in the industries, especially in manufactures and 
commerce. He shows conclusively how the individ- 
ual finally reaps advantages from the increased rich- 
ness of his life, made possible by the advances of 
civilization. It is true that all the advances made by 
society at large react on the individual to his advan- 
tage ; yet history shows that in many cases this 
reaction is quite unequal in its value to individuals, 
often leaving wide areas of population unhelped. In 
some industries the employees have been personally 
injured in their standards of life by the very success 
of the industry made possible by the scientific inves- 
tigations referred to. Therefore, while one cannot 
deny the wonderful general amelioration of life by 
modern discoveries in science, one also remembers 
that these advances have come in many instances to 
classes rather than to individuals, or to the whole 
population as individuals. The real value of science 
as shown by Spencer was rather the value to society 
from having a few people well instructed in science 
for industrial life. What we are most concerned in, 
so far as this discussion goes, is quite another matter, 
and one to which Mr. Spencer gives but casual at- 
tention; namely, the actual influences on the indi- 
vidual, both in himself and in his social relations, of 



240 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

his personal mastery of the ideas making up any 
branch of knowledge. The teacher is constantly face 
to face with such problems as these : What changes 
for the better can I make in John Doe by the teach- 
ing to him of the given lesson, that is, the particular 
idea or ideas of to-day's lesson in reading or arithmetic 
or geography or physics; and further, How may I 
improve the class of ideas to be taught, by a better 
selection and arrangement of this particular part of 
the curriculum of the grade under my care ? 

Every teacher has within his own experience 
much knowledge of how he has come to be what he 
is, — of what ideas changed his life by making him 
more intelligent in reference to important matters, 
and of what ideas appealed to his better nature 
and changed his standards of conduct. If he be re- 
flective by nature, he may gain power in teaching 
others by considering his own experience; but he 
will be greatly helped by fuller study of the nature 
of the ideas involved in the different subjects, especi- 
ally in regard to their stimulative value. Moreover, 
the very best methods of presenting ideas are often 
disclosed by the study of the effect one is to secure 
through their mastery by a pupil. Hence the value of 
such studies as we are pursuing for any teacher who 
wishes to be efficient in directing the self-realization 
of real children, as well as for those educators who 
select studies and arrange courses of study. 



SELF-REALIZATION 241 

The exact change which comes into the person- 
ality or personal life of a pupil through the mastery 
of particular ideas has been little considered by 
teachers and scarcely noted by writers. Much of 
the inefHciency of teaching comes from the fact that 
teaching is usually considered in relation to large 
numbers, and with reference to required tests of 
examination or some immediate standards ; and that 
little attention is given to the daily growth of the 
individual pupil, in his mental life, as he masters 
successively the ideas of the lessons making up the 
course of study. Even specialists, in setting forth 
the claims of their subjects, speak most frequently 
in reference to the general improvement of the com- 
munity through the more perfect understanding of 
the ideas involved. More definiteness would be 
given to such discussion if the considerations were 
confined to a narrower limit and the case made more 
personal with each student. This, however, would 
require a volume or more for each branch of learn- 
ing, so no such task can be undertaken here. In- 
stead the writer can give only an illustration or 
two, hoping thus to suggest to the reader how he 
may study other branches at his leisure. 

A preliminary word may here be spoken in ref- 
erence to the work of the primary teacher. Much 
of this work, such as the mechanical part of number 
work or reading or language work, seems at first 



242 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

thought to be purely formal. If, for instance, the 
particular problem for some one minute of a given 
lesson be the teaching of the form of a letter to the 
eye, and its name to the ear, together with the in- 
stantaneous association of these two things so as 
to be remembered ever after, it all seems for the 
moment a mere matter of drill. But such is far from 
being the case. The modern primary teacher has 
learned not to teach such facts in entire isolation, 
but, on the contrary, to involve such work in the 
large problem of getting interesting ideas from the 
printed page. Nevertheless, we must admit that 
after all motives have been brought in from all ac- 
cessible sources, the absorbing work of the pupil, 
during some appreciable portion of the lesson period, 
is just the mastery of those two details in their 
proper association. Furthermore, this particular 
work must be done thoroughly, for reasons more or 
less consciously present in the teacher's conception 
of his duty. Some of these reasons (aims) look 
toward the use of this particular knowledge as an 
instrument for further conquests in the intellectual 
world; and such reasons, being clearly seen by the 
teacher, will naturally be suggested to the pupils at 
all opportune moments. Teachers are prone to de- 
vise their methods and judge of the necessary thor- 
oughness of their instruction by this standard of 
further use, as if this were all. But there is a higher 



SELF-REALIZATION 243 

question involved, which may help to determine 
methods and standards of thoroughness; namely, 
the condition of the child before and after the ex- 
ercise of his powers on the new knowledge. If his 
sight has been clear and definite; if his sense of 
completeness of the whole, however small, has been 
satisfied ; if there has been no clouding of his intel- 
lectual condition, — no intellectual contradictions left 
unsolved ; if belief that this new knowledge, however 
small, is vitally related to his immediate or remote 
success in life, and especially to some mastery of an 
immediate good ; if his readiness to give himself to 
intellectual pursuits has been increased, however in- 
finitesimally ; if his idea of school as a desirable place 
in which to live and to prepare for life has been 
made clearer ; if the whole notion of his relationship 
to his teacher and to his classmates has been made 
to seem more significant, — if any or all of these re- 
sults have come to him, the teaching has been worth 
while. The ethical relations have been brought to 
the surface, and not only has the particular knowl- 
edge involved been attained, but the pupil has been 
advanced on his course of self-realization. 

The instance taken is extreme, — one that is com- 
pletely barren at first sight of ethical and social 
elements ; yet it is seen at the last analysis to be 
penetrated and interpenetrated with ethical mean- 
ing. The pupil's attitude toward all study has been 



244 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

influenced ; he has received discipline, so called, as 
well as knowledge ; has had his character formed as 
well as his intellect instructed ; has in fact had many 
of the elements of his ideal of life and conduct mod- 
ified. The newer psychologists are prone to say 
that there is no such thing as " discipline," — power 
gained in the mastery of one subject that can be 
carried over to another, — except when the two 
branches have certain ideas in common. Their mis- 
take lies in forgetting that all subjects, when related 
to character development, are connected by some 
ethical ideas, and that it is impossible to isolate 
any subject entirely from any other in this respect. 
The partial truth of their contention lies in the fact 
that the power to be carried over is greater in those 
cases in which other ideas are also held in common 
by both branches of subject matter. 

The real discipline, whether it be formal or not, 
doubtless consists of a common element; but this 
may be a common element of subject matter, or a 
less easily distinguishable common ethical element^ 
which manifests itself in the character of the pupil, 
in an attribute brought out in the study of one sub- 
ject and preserved for the other. This is entirely 
possible in ethical attributes (such as patience, 
accuracy, concentration, persistence, etc.), while not 
in the same sense possible in more intellectual 
possessions. 



SELF-REALIZATION 245 

The primary teacher, however, has much more to 
consider than is involved in the cases presupposed 
thus far in the discussion. In the primary-reading 
work, for instance, the greater number of lessons 
concern real ideas, such as help to make up intel- 
ligence in many provinces of intellectual life; or 
such as are more vitally related to moral develop- 
ment than those referred to in the supposed early 
lessons. In the brief stories of interest to children 
the elements of sociology and history are found ; in 
other aspects of these same stories are suggestions 
of life as idealized by the imagination, — the actual 
elements of literature. Albeit the primary teacher 
deals with the veriest elements; these are adapted 
to the undeveloped or but partly developed human 
being who is the pupil. It is the same problem, 
whatever the stage of development, although it must 
be admitted that the problem of the primary teacher 
has some complications and difficulties not present 
in the work of the later grades. It will therefore 
seem simpler if we consider the effect of the mastery 
of ideas in a more advanced stage of growth of the 
pupil. For the purpose of simple illustration suppose 
we take some ideas from the subject of history. 

History is based on the social nature of man. Its 
most important principle is the idea of cooperation. 
This necessitates its opposite, — competition or con- 
flict of action. A human being, subsisting by himself 



246 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

and thinking and earning for himself only, would 
not be living in an historical relation. The thought 
of the other (of others), with mutuality of interests 
or seeming oppositions of interests, — all these must 
develop in the thought of one who studies his- 
tory in even its simplest phases. One is thus led to 
consider the essence of motives as related to con- 
duct and character by standards of right and wrong. 
These themes, moreover, if properly presented by 
the teacher, have peculiar interest for a self-active, 
responsible being, who is just now developing his 
standards of conduct, and who feels that people like 
himself in mental make-up, moved by the same 
human motives, have acted this drama of life which 
history spreads out for his contemplation. A little 
human touch of this sort, given to a single striking 
event, has in it the power to hold a student to the 
mastery of other less exciting bits of the subject, if 
he comes to believe that these less exciting incidents 
are preparations for coming events of large signifi- 
cance. So while the teacher of history may in a few 
instances have to fall back on those less noticeable 
ethical relationships spoken of in connection with 
the early reading lessons, it is not necessary at all 
in the more advanced lessons. The very ideas them- 
selves are charged and surcharged with human in- 
terest and ethical import, and the pupil is every 
day becoming a more ethical being by the very 



SELF-REALIZATION 247 

contemplation of the ideas which make up the suc- 
cessive lessons of the curriculum. The pupil himself 
has changed from a nonethical, nonhistorical being 
into one who considers the actions of others as care- 
fully as his own, who understands the motives which 
underlie classes of actions, who has become altruistic 
in his thinking, always relating his own actions in 
life with those of his fellow makers of contemporary 
history. He is seeing each day more and more 
clearly how ideas develop into customs, customs 
into laws, and laws into institutions. He is seeing 
more and more clearly each day the meaning of 
national honor and national duty ; and he is on the 
road to a right conception of the meaning of the 
word "citizen." Within himself he has grown, — 
has become broader in his conceptions, more altruis- 
tic in his feelings, more acute in his conclusions, 
more agreeable in his social relations in the local 
institutions of school and family. All these things 
manifest themselves in his spiritual growth, his de- 
veloped worth ; in a bound he has advanced on the 
road toward self-realization, — to become the best per- 
sonality that his human endowments make possible. 
History therefore tends in this way to develop 
the growing youth into a practically moral person. 
We must turn to literature — the expression of life 
idealized — for another marvelous stimulation to- 
ward human development. If history teaches what 



248 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

has been and what is, literature is a greater stimulus, 
because it teaches what life may be. If history leads 
to a largeness of personality in the comprehension 
of the long line of events by which the past has 
become the present, literature lifts the veil and sends 
the mind down the widening vista of the future. 
What the present may become in the future is its 
theme. All that human nature in the countless ages 
of the past did because of its powers, is but a hint 
of all that the human being may accomplish by virtue 
of his powers. Literature, with many pupils, opens 
the way to seeing, hoping, striving, and attaining. 
Literature helps the growing student to gather up 
his elements of knowledge and feeling and to weave 
them into ideals of achievement. What worth has 
such a being in himself, for himself ! The theme is 
infinite in its possibilities because human nature is 
infinite in possible attainment. 

Turning now to geography, we find a set of ideas 
of slightly different significance, though geography 
and history have many points of likeness in their 
relation to human welfare. Mere intelligence, espe- 
cially as to material matters, is of little worth in the 
formation of ideals unless this intelligence is some- 
what touched with feeling, — emotion, — tending to- 
ward aspiration or longing after achievement. So 
mere knowledge of the earth as such — of its size, 
shape, and other physical conditions — has little value 



SELF-REALIZATION 249 

in any moral sense. The mastery of such knowledge 
leads a person from a grade of ignorance to a grade 
of intelligence, it is true ; and doubtless it is worth 
while for the mere sense of larger outlook which 
a student so gains, but the supreme worth of such 
knowledge comes only when it is learned in some 
human relation. The earth as the home of man and 
the theater of his advancing civilization is the real 
theme of geography. History shows the drama in 
progress and treats especially of the human forces 
which retard or advance its action ; to the student it 
furnishes both intelligence and motive for his own 
part as an actor in the present and future. Geography 
also shows the drama of human life, but it has to do 
chiefly with the physical forces which retard or ad- 
vance the interests of the contending factions on 
the stage. History doubtless makes the more direct 
appeal to human motive, and renders cumulative 
and effective these strong aspirations after achieve- 
ment. Geography states clearly the physical con- 
ditions under which achievement is possible, and 
thus tends directly to sanity and reason in the 
ordering of action. 

What we are now is not entirely accounted for 
by historical narration, though this narration should 
deal in historical cause and effect so far as these are 
related to people alone. We are what we are, partly 
because we live where we do, with the consequent 



250 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

physical conditions of life. The historical struggle 
has always included the getting of food, clothing, 
and shelter; and what else has been accomplished 
has in the main been done in the margin of life left 
after such struggle. What is done with the margin 
of life, however, is dependent on the qualities devel- 
oped in the struggle. Geography, therefore, must 
show each nation of the world struggling with the 
physical conditions of its special habitat, taking ad- 
vantage of favoring conditions, overcoming adverse 
ones, and giving a margin of life. But the panorama 
must be so placed as to show the steady gain in 
moral qualities in the struggle, rendering the mar- 
gin of life, beyond mere comfort, worth while. Few 
desires above physical comfort are felt by savages. 
If, therefore, the savage live in a tropical climate 
where food is plentiful and clothing and shelter un- 
necessary, the margin of life left is large but useless. 
It is useless because the struggle has been too slight 
to develop qualities which alone enable the human 
being to use the margin in worthy achievement. 
Thus history is impossible in such elementary so- 
ciety. On the other hand, if a savage people live in 
a frigid zone, the struggle for food, clothing, and 
shelter takes all the time, leaving no margin for 
worthier effort. While the struggle here gives the 
germ of many noble characteristics, these have little 
opportunity for exercise in higher forms and soon 



SELF-REALIZATION 251 

cease to grow. There is no room here for history, — 
no margin of Hfe for spiritual achievement. 

Geography deals not only with climatic conditions 
as affecting the human struggle for more and better 
life, but with all the physical facts which affect this 
struggle. Thus it is that soil, rivers, forests, mines, 
plant life, conditions of trafific, etc. become important 
facts of the lesson in geography. But in order that 
these facts shall be helpful in promoting the growth 
of character they must be taught in their human re- 
lation ; that is, they must be shown to be conditions 
or motives for human action in the supplying of 
food, clothing, and shelter, or in satisfying some of 
those higher wants which have been slowly developed 
in man through the struggle to live more and more 
comfortably and happily and worthily. Therefore, 
while history portrays the human struggle on the 
side of the human will working in and through so- 
ciety, geography portrays the drama of the human 
struggle amid physical conditions which suggest, en- 
courage, or hinder effort, — primarily effort to secure 
physical comfort, but secondarily effort to enlarge 
that margin of life which is the only field for human 
culture. 

The motives that initiate action in the human 
drama of history are, on the whole, of a higher order 
than those which initiate action in the human drama 
as portrayed in geography ; but both views are equally 



252 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

essential to the development of the growing child. 
These two subjects are inextricably intertwined 
in their details, and should be treated as cognate 
branches. Each drama in its advancement furnishes 
motives for the other ; and the two should often be 
shown as advancing substantially together. Never- 
theless certain phases of this human advancement 
are distinctly conditioned by facts and reasons which 
are evidently geographical in character, while certain 
others are conditioned by facts and reasons which 
are as indisputably historical in their nature. Here, 
therefore, there is properly a line of demarcation 
noted, across which, however, numerous relations, 
causal and otherwise, extend. 

To many teachers the numerous facts of geog- 
raphy — climate, soil, products, occupations, etc. — 
seem so many separate ideas thrown together in a 
hodgepodge without law or unity; and it must be 
confessed that many of the textbooks on geography 
rather encourage this conception. The prominence 
sometimes given to the artificial boundaries of states 
or countries lends color to this view. The exact 
boundary of a particular state of the United States, 
for instance, is a fact of little geographical impor- 
tance, unless taught with reference to its meaning 
in human society. Certain social, legal, and political 
procedures are actually and finally conditioned by 
such boundary ; but the real industrial interests of the 



SELF-REALIZATION 253 

people of the state, together with most of their social 
and even their chief political interests, are bound up 
with those of a whole group of states, whose physical 
attributes are in some important aspects identical or 
similar. In such case the state is to be treated, in great 
measure, as a component part of this whole, and its 
chief interests inferred from such connection. 

To play its part in child culture, the material of 
geographical instruction must be given primarily as 
first-hand knowledge ; and thus the real knowledge 
will be gained which can later be worked over into 
geographical ideals. Maps and books are important 
aids to instruction at certain stages of the work, but 
these should be used as aids, and not as constitut- 
ing the subject matter itself. The world is all about 
us and within easy reach of the student and teacher 
of geography. All conceptions of climate, soil, land 
forms, and such other facts as condition directly the 
industrial and economic life of a people, should be 
gained by the child from a study of these as exhibited 
in that part of the world which constitutes his neigh- 
borhood. This is made difficult in the case of city 
children, on account of their slight acquaintance with 
rural life ; but even this obstacle is overcome by study- 
ing the industries of a city in such a way as to imply 
the surrounding country life. 

It is to be remembered that not all of one's knowl- 
edge is to be obtained at first-hand, but only enough 



254 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

to enable one to interpret truly and readily books, 
maps, and other aids to study. So in reference to 
foreign countries, a sufficient amount of first-hand 
information may be obtained to make even book 
knowledge realistic thereafter. To illustrate : a con- 
siderable number of our southern states are engaged 
in industries growing out of the cultivation of the 
cotton plant. It is possible for the teacher to have 
specimens of the cotton plant representing different 
stages of its growth from seed to maturity, together 
with various grades of cotton cloth made into use- 
ful articles of clothing, or at least capable of being 
made into such articles. With these means at hand 
the teacher may assist the child to construct for 
himself mentally the whole picture or drama of 
human society, so far as the struggle to secure 
clothing from the cotton plant limits or conditions 
such struggle. 

It is a great mistake to think that the child him- 
self has to live slowly through all the stages of such 
struggle. Those schools which have taken up simi- 
lar problems and taught children to construct obso- 
lete forms of looms and other machinery, and to go 
through the slow process of production of finished 
fabrics in primitive forms and by primitive methods, 
have wasted precious hours of child life and dulled 
final interest by the slavish performance and repeti- 
tion of that which the child has already constructed 



SELF-REALIZATION 255 

as ideals. The very swiftness of imaging and im- 
agery is a great element of human interest. With 
ideas of the physical forces of the earth, and of the re- 
lation of these ideas to climatic conditions ; with ideas 
of soil, and of the relation of these to plant growth, 
the pupil is ready to use books, maps, and pictures 
to assist him in creating, from the meager materials 
suggested, the whole human drama as related to the 
cotton plant. The single cotton plant aided by a 
good picture gives the mental conception of a cot- 
ton field, with the mode of culture, the grade of 
labor used, and all the other accessories of this act 
in the drama; while the specimens of cloth shown, 
together with pictures of factories, stores, and fin- 
ished goods, give the successive acts. Many books 
present facts concerning the different stages, and 
incidentally give an impression of the contribution 
to human culture, in artistic finish of goods and in 
other ways, which the cotton plant makes. The limi- 
tation which its culture and manufacture place upon 
the development of laborers and factory hands forms 
a part of the final picture. Sociological, commercial, 
and political implications are plainly brought for- 
ward, and many inferences in regard to the facts 
and possibilities of human life are pressed upon the 
attention of the learner. 

How intensely interesting and humanizing be- 
comes this sort of study as it ranges over the world 



256 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

and considers the human relations of the various 
industries that are conditioned and partly controlled 
by geographical facts ! The cocoanut tree and the 
industries and products to which it gives rise, the 
silk plant, mining interests, grazing, common farm- 
ing, — all lend themselves to such treatment, result- 
ing in an enchanting story of human struggle and 
advancement. Although conditioned more or less 
by geographical facts, they are colored by human 
courage, insight, and perseverance, — the very obsta- 
cles of nature being turned into potent instruments 
of human culture. 

While a child is pursuing a course of study in the 
spirit and by the method indicated above, certain 
changes are taking place in him, caused or con- 
ditioned by such study. These changes are not 
changes of his nature, but rather changes in the 
stage of his development. Certain mental and spirit- 
ual possibilities of his nature are no longer mere 
potentialities, but have become actualities, as attri- 
butes of a partly developed person, just as before they 
were potential attributes of an undeveloped person. 
These characteristics were always involved in him 
as possibilities, or they could not have been evolved 
as actualities. Some of these new characteristics are 
chiefly mental ; others, overpoweringly moral or eth- 
ical in their significance. The power to conceive of 
large things, — of large areas of land, seemingly 



SELF-REALIZATION 257 

illimitable acres, of great forces operating over large 
spaces, as the winds, — this newly acquired mental 
attribute is of great significance in the mental 
and spiritual development of a young person. This 
changed attribute shows itself markedly in readiness 
in imaging large things, in easy construction of ideas 
into combinations showing causal or other relations, 
and in increased power to draw rational conclusions 
in reference to great world movements. 

The mental creation of the physical world, which 
each child begins before he comes to school, and 
continues in his geographical studies thereafter, is of 
supreme importance in personal culture. As it pro- 
gresses the child is liberated — made larger by the 
life of the world he images — and freed from limi- 
tations of action placed about him by ignorance. He 
is made mentally able to take his place among work- 
ers whose chief business is to control and direct these 
forces to beneficent ends. He no longer concerns him- 
self with the little and petty, but has ideals that spur 
him on to larger and more hopeful action. There is 
a distinctly ethical or moral significance in such men- 
tal change. To think large conceptions of physical 
facts helps to remove the limitations of bigotry and 
intolerance, even in moral and religious provinces of 
human action. If the student of astronomy got noth- 
ing else out of his study, the mere ability to think 
and at least partially to conceive large spaces, and to 



258 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

feel the awe which accompanies such processes, would 
amply repay him for the time and effort required. In 
like manner would I recommend the study of geology, 
if only for the purpose of achieving the power to think 
time in countless eons. 

It is in the study of the industries that the child 
gets the humanest culture that geography can give, 
if this portion of the subject be well taught in the 
spirit indicated in these pages. The picture of people 
contending with physical forces, harmonizing them, 
and using them to practical ends in the production 
of necessaries, is the most humanizing picture which 
geography has to offer. For geography to-day shows 
this human struggle not under conditions of savagery, 
in which it would have little of human suggestive- 
ness, but under conditions of human society. Human 
affection underlies every movement, and altruistic im- 
pulses furnish the human motive. The man strives 
not for himself alone, but to obtain food, clothing, and 
shelter for loved ones under all the sacred relations 
which underlie and which are involved in every form 
of human society. And these altruistic relations are 
shown by the exertions of persons beyond what 
would be called forth by the desire for merely phys- 
ical comfort for one's self, and are ethical sugges- 
tions of the greatest possible worth. The picture of 
a man struggling strenuously, beyond the call of his 
personal needs, to care for loved ones dependent on 



SELF-REALIZATION 259 

him as the result of human relations, is among the 
most inspiring of human visions granted to mortal 
eyes. Geography shows this ethical human struggle 
in all its stages. Thus while the study of geography 
fits the youth for competitive struggle when he shall 
have reached the age for such struggle, it also fills his 
character with noble motives which will initiate and 
carry such struggle through on altruistic levels. 

Some of the culture values shown in this discus- 
sion as belonging to geography are shared with other 
studies, but some are peculiar to this branch, at least 
in the form and in the degree here named. Even 
when they are shared with other branches they are, 
as a rule, so much more easily attained through this 
branch than through any other, that they should 
never be overlooked by the teacher of geography. 

We must remember that the being whose develop- 
ment we are describing is a human being, not yet a 
god, — not even yet a pure spirit. His feet are still on 
the ground, though his aspirations and hopes may be 
much higher. There are other subjects in the curric- 
ulum quite as necessary to his development as are 
history and literature and geography; indeed, in 
some stages of his development, more pressing. For 
instance it is especially desirable that each person be 
so taught as to be able to make his own living. It is 
a worthy ambition in a boy to become able to take 
his place honorably in the business and industrial 



26o EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

world. It is desirable that each one should come to 
feel the sense of economic capability which makes 
one a person of consequence in his community. 
While the immediate reason for this is perhaps 
the necessity for securing the physical necessities 
and conveniences of life, the greater reason is the 
consequent feeling of capacity and worth which 
such training gives. If, therefore, each subject be 
analyzed into its elements, and these elements be 
considered in the scale of final worth, it will be dis- 
covered that the higher reason for the teaching of 
any subject is a moral one, and has reference to 
developing in the student himself capacity, or real 
worth, — worth to himself as a moral, liberated, and 
developed person. 

In this connection it is to be noted that the final 
culture value of ideas, from whatever branch or sub- 
ject they are obtained, is largely dependent on the 
associations placed about them while they are being 
acquired. This result is partly dependent on the 
method of presentation chosen by the teacher, and 
partly on the moral and professional character of the 
teacher herself. To illustrate the importance of inci- 
dental associations, I offer the following ideal discus- 
sion of a sentence found in one of the popular 
geographies of the day. The intention is to show 
how incidental associations gather about a lesson, 
varying with the character, tact, and professional 



SELF-REALIZATION 261 

preparation of the teacher. The sentence is as fol- 
lows: "The port of New York is one of the great- 
est commercial centers of the world and includes 
the cities of New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, and 
Hoboken." 

Let us observe the results of two kinds of teach- 
ing, by supposing that two teachers have assigned the 
lesson including the above sentence. The first teacher 
calls upon a child to recite, and because at first he 
does not repeat the words readily, she reproves him, 
and, in order to emphasize her displeasure, asks him 
suddenly what a " port " is. The boy acknowledges 
that he does not know, and he is again reprimanded 
for not knowing, despite the fact that the teacher her- 
self has a very hazy idea of what a port really is. The 
boy by this time has already tried twice to sit down, 
hoping that the rest of the teacher's tirade will fall 
upon some other pupil. The teacher, however, asks 
him to stand till he is excused, and on his failure to 
stand straight, she commands him to take his hands 
off the desk and stand in the aisle. When he has 
finally complied with these requests she proceeds to 
ask him why this is called the port of New York 
instead of the port of Brooklyn or the port of Jersey 
City, He again admits his ignorance. Then the 
teacher asks him what is meant by a "commercial 
center." Again the boy is uncertain, but thinks it is 
because ships or trading vessels load or unload there. 



262 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

The teacher now tells him he may be seated, and she 
expresses the hope, in a hopeless tone, that next time 
he will get his lesson better and not have to take 
up so much of the time of the class, etc. During 
this performance there has been growing up in the 
boy's mind a semiconscious conviction that it does 
not matter in the least what a " port " is, that a " com- 
mercial center" has no particular relation to his life 
interests, that geography is a dull study, of little use 
and certainly of no pleasure to him, that his teacher 
has been " picking " at him, and that on the morrow 
he will go a-fishing. 

The second teacher begins in much the same 
manner as did the first teacher, and the pupil stum- 
bles in much the same way as did the pupil in the 
former instance. But how different the procedure 
from this point ! The teacher, having prepared her 
lesson in view of the self-active nature of the child, 
wishes to enlist the will and interest of the pupils in 
the mastery of this really complex idea of the port 
of New York. She has already seen that the words 
of this sentence must be made to carry a meaning 
in order that they shall be readily memorized. At 
this critical moment, therefore, she presents to the 
class a picture of the harbor of New York. This 
picture, cut out of Harpers Weekly^ shows the 
Narrows and the broad bay above. A single sen- 
tence or two explains how all vessels entering 



SELF-REALIZATION 263 

here are safe from wind and wave while they un- 
load. A quick movement by the teacher shows 
another picture with vessels at the wharf, while a 
well-directed question, which can be answered by a 
look at the picture, calls attention to the character 
of the goods being unloaded. A guess or two from 
the pupils as to where these goods come from height- 
ens interest. Then the scene is again shifted to a pic- 
ture of the upper bay of New York, with the adjacent 
cities clustered around this one body of water, and 
the meaning of " commercial center " is apparent. By 
this time questions come from pupils as well as 
teacher, and in the course of the answers the fact 
that there is a customhouse at New York is brought 
out, and the real meaning of " port " is made plain, 
together with the reason why this particular one 
should be called the port of New York. The large 
number of vessels shown in the picture indicates 
the greatness of the traffic, and the different kinds 
of goods being unloaded from the ships, and the 
different flags floating from the mastheads, show the 
various countries involved in this traffic; while a 
single query as to what those vessels may carry 
on their return trip calls to mind the immense 
resources of our own country. The great cost of 
ships, the many men needed to manage them, the 
countless thousands of people engaged everywhere 
in manufacturing these articles so that they may 



264 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

become articles of merchandise, also receive pass- 
ing notice. 

The mind of the pupil is impressed by all these 
things in a semiconscious way until it dawns upon 
him how it is that the cooperation of immense 
numbers of people enables each of us to secure for 
himself more comforts in life than the millions of 
Rockefeller could command for him without the 
help of his fellows. Not only has this fundamental 
principle of cooperation been thus forcefully borne 
in upon the pupil, but other associations have also 
attached themselves to this idea. The boy has had 
pass through his mind the idea of what a pleasant 
companion his teacher would be on an excursion ; 
he has begun to see the vital relation of geography 
to daily living; he thinks he would like to read 
about the countries from which these things come ; 
and he wonders if he cannot get some books of 
travel from the public library. Already he has de- 
termined that when he is a man he will visit all 
these countries whose ships enter our harbors ; and 
when at last the teacher requires him to recite the 
sentence, — even many times, so that it may be 
uttered trippingly on the tongue, — every repetition 
comes with meaning in it, till at the close of the 
recitation the boy is a new being, anxious for another 
glimpse in the textbook to see what comes next. 

One of these boys has this day moved a long step 



SELF-REALIZATION 265 

toward the street; he has before him indifference, 
neglect of duty, truancy, the workhouse, and the 
penitentiary. The other has taken a long stride to- 
ward a happy and useful citizenship. Because of 
this one lesson he will in future have a greater inter- 
est in human affairs, a broader sympathy, a saner 
judgment ; he will be more cordial in friendship, 
more industrious in school, more agreeable in the 
home. This difference of trend has taken place in the 
two boys because of the difference of treatment in re- 
gard to the same sentence in geography, — because 
one teacher took the trouble first to understand boy 
nature and then to prepare to teach the boy in ac- 
cordance with his nature and destiny. The whole 
incident occupied less than ten minutes, but the 
effects are permanent and the difference increas- 
ingly magnifies as the years go on. It is obvious 
that no matter how valuable the ideas offered by 
any branch of study may be, the teacher is, after 
all, the most important part of the spiritual environ- 
ment of the school child. 

If we now turn to mathematics, we find a wholly 
different set of ideas, some of them quite essential 
to the right use of all other ideas. In this sense 
such knowledge is fundamental and comes into the 
earliest stages of human culture. The fundamental 
operations with numbers enter into all the minor 
utilities of civilization, and condition all the moral 



266 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

effects rising from domestic and social life. The 
higher mathematics condition all mastery of natural 
forces for utilitarian uses, and hence all the moral 
and ethical relations in which great industrial enter- 
prises stand to social welfare. 

Little need be said, in reference to these ideas, to 
prove their general worth in utilitarian aspects of 
life, nor indeed to show that great moral and ethical 
results may flow from the right teaching of such 
subjects. I wish rather to discuss here the personal 
effect on the individual of his mastery of mathemat- 
ics. While the larger utilitarian results may be of 
more real import, — indirectly to society, and there- 
fore, by reflex influence, to the individual, — these as- 
pects of the subject have been made clear in the great 
feats of modern achievement in the mastery of the 
physical universe. And important as these uses are, 
they would be attained just as well by the education 
of the few as by the education of all, since only the 
few use these ideas in invention, discovery, and con- 
struction. The theme here, therefore, is rather the 
immediate influence brought to bear on the personal 
development of a pupil by his mastery of the ele- 
mentary mathematical ideas. The discussion will be 
suggestive in regard to methods of teaching this 
branch in ordinary elementary schools. 

Number concepts themselves are of course con- 
ditioned on succession of events in time, but these 



SELF-REALIZATION 267 

concepts are applicable afterward to the process of 
estimating in comprehensible fashion all efficient 
agencies in the physical world. The possibility for 
number creation is of course in the original struc- 
ture of the mind ; but the actual construction of 
number ideas, and the performance of mathematical 
processes with these number ideas, are always forced 
upon the mind by experiences which succeed each 
other. So soon as the mind gives attention to any- 
thing, succession as a fact, so far as it is an independ- 
ent fact, favors the creation of number ideas and 
their comparison. This early work is done for the 
child by his environment before school age. The 
systematizing of these and associated ideas in early 
school days results in the fundamental operations 
and the ranging of numbers into places, orders, 
periods, etc. 

The change which this systematization produces 
in a child is chiefly intellectual. Indeed mathematics 
as a branch of knowledge is chiefly intellectual, yet 
it is not wholly so. By the very mastery of numbers 
and of the fundamental operations the child's physical 
world begins to marshal itself in order. Previous to 
such knowledge it produced the effect of a conglom- 
eration of attributes without order or sequence or 
significance. Much that had before remained un- 
noticed is seen now, and much that had before 
seemed confused seems clear now. We must not 



268 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

forget the sense of security and power which comes 
into one's life when one becomes able to count 
things and to arrange them in a thought order more 
reasonable than that in which nature thrusts them 
upon him. This acquaintance with things and this 
new power over them become a sort of moral stimu- 
lus to the will, and thus prepare the way for one to 
take hold of the facts of the outer world and place 
them in the more orderly array suggested by mathe- 
matical ideas. This opens the way for work of all 
kinds. It is in this manner that the commonest 
mathematical ideas condition all industry and all our 
intercourse with one another which industry requires. 
The more intelligible mathematical ideas become, 
the greater is the sense of power over things, and 
the better is the understanding of things essential to 
intelligent cooperation with other workers. It is a 
new kind of language, without which the real mean- 
ing of any language could not be made clear. 

By the use of these number ideas the young child 
begins the mastery of space. An assumed standard 
is forced upon the mind of the infant as it was upon 
the mind of the savage in his feeble attempts to mas- 
ter the same difificulties. But from the teacher the 
child soon learns the artificial standards assumed by 
society, and then he proceeds to master space as he 
had before mastered things in time, using the funda- 
mental arithmetical processes for that purpose. 



SELF-REALIZATION 269 

Elementary knowledge of arithmetic is usually 
urged as desirable on the ground of utility in little 
and common things, and doubtless this reason is 
sufficient to justify simple arithmetical instruction. 
The demand for accuracy and facility in operations 
is usually made on the ground of utility or efficiency ; 
but doubtless, too, a stronger argument could be 
made for the same thing under the plea for moral 
culture of the individual. Mathematical ideas offer 
an opportunity to impress upon one, with a degree 
of finality, what truth really is. Error is so easily de- 
tected that its presence can at once be made appar- 
ent. A child should be made to feel a joy in the 
absolute correctness of his work. No other school 
branch offers a like opportunity to cultivate an 
elation of mind over actual success, — success so ap- 
parent that the very clearness of the demonstration 
itself creates a joyful and hopeful view of the world 
and of life. There ought to be such a spirit of joy 
in correctness as shall allow it to spill over and per- 
vade all experiences, giving to one a sense of the 
presence everywhere of the eternal verities. Cer- 
tainty, absolute certainty, is the right of one's mind, 
and here in mathematics one may fairly revel in 
it. The person who has the sense of certainty 
and power is really morally as well as intellectually 
equipped for mastery over the world. 

It is, however, in its application to the mastery of 



270 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

the physical forces of the world that mathematics 
has justified itself most fully as a subject of study. 
Physics has latterly become almost a branch of ap- 
plied mathematics, so fully are mathematical ideas 
used in physical and chemical experiments. These 
sciences deal with force ; but little can be done with 
force, or the things which embody or transmit force, 
without the ability to count, to divide, to multiply, 
and to subtract. Physics and chemistry advance al- 
most entirely by counting, measuring, or weighing. 

The student of physics or chemistry places things 
in certain relations to one another — relations of po- 
sition, number, magnitude, proximity, quantity, tem- 
perature, etc. — and observes what happens. From 
this he infers the action and reaction of forces which 
are embodied in or transmitted by the things with 
which he works. The significance of this study for 
practical purposes depends on the fact that he is 
dealing in the laboratory with exactly the same 
kinds of forces as those he meets in his daily life. 
The advantage of study in the laboratory is that 
here one has special conveniences, appliances, etc., 
to the end that he may find out facts and laws 
about these common forces. He may then act more 
rationally every day in the presence of these same 
forces in his daily life. Here again comes a great 
sense of security, — a confidence in the friendliness 
of the natural forces, since now one knows how to 



SELF-REALIZATION 271 

get along with them advantageously. And this new 
attribute is a moral one, leading to a sense of greater 
worthiness in the individual. Furthermore, the study 
of physics or of the physical forces in the laboratory, 
under mathematical tests of counting, weighing, and 
measuring, secures special training in accuracy, 
patience, persistence, etc., in addition to mere intel- 
ligence. Science rightly pursued is a distinctly 
moral force in the culture of character. Especially 
is this true of these subjects when pursued in their 
higher ranges. In such case the student catches a 
glimpse of something more than mere force in 
action. He finds that back of these changing phe- 
nomena, to which he grows accustomed in the lab- 
oratory, there are laws and principles making for 
permanence in the physical world. Through the 
further study of these laws and principles he is led 
to see the prevalence of law and order in the phys- 
ical universe, and to infer them in other provinces of 
human experience. All this change of attitude to- 
ward things and forces is distinctly moral in a very 
high sense, and tends to stability of character. 

There is one grave danger to character develop- 
ment for the student of physics, unless he be 
guarded by his teachers against certain influences 
of the laboratory. In the very nature of the case the 
student of physics learns to depend on laboratory 
tests for trustworthy results. Unless his teacher 



2 72 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

forewarns him of danger he is Hable to think that these 
tests of counting, weighing, and measuring are the 
only tests of truth that there are, and he easily learns 
to distrust any evidence that does not lend itself 
to such proof. It seems so simple to test things in 
the laborator}% and the truth thus vouched for so ob- 
trudes itself upon the attention, that the student 
readily concludes all truth to be similarly obtrusive 
in its verification. The fact is that much of the 
higher realm of truth is entirely above these mathe- 
matical and material tests. Some truth, especially in 
psychology and ethics, is seen directly, and believed 
on evidence of a moral and personal character 
which does not in any way lend itself to outside 
tests. The remedy for a prejudice resulting from 
the too exclusive study of physical or chemical sub- 
jects consists in the study of psychology, logic, and 
metaphysics. No scientist is a safe adviser, even in 
his own field, until he has enlarged the range of his 
mental horizon by including in his studies subjects 
requiring intuition and reflection. A too close re- 
striction to physical themes is liable to lead to 
agnosticism in reference to other forms of truth. 
Liberality of range in studies will restore sanity of 
judgment. 

The physicist needs one more caution. He has 
been so accustomed to measure force by physical 
tests that he fails to note that there are forces that 



SELF-REALIZATION 273 

do not subject themselves to such estimates. The 
mere physicist, as such, has no explanation for a 
force like that enshrined in a seed, much less that 
involved in the human will. A course of study in 
biology and psychology is needed to restore balance 
of mind and to rid judgment of narrowness and 
prejudice. 

It seems unnecessary for present purposes to 
analyze all the subjects taught in the school. We 
have seen enough to convince us that education, to 
be worthy of the name, must be sane, efficient, and 
liberal. A little learning is not a " dangerous thing " 
because it is a little learning, but because it is a 
little learning. More learning removes the danger. 

We have seen the perils of narrow aims and 
special courses, which early set limits to endeavor 
and repeat exercises till they benumb interest and 
kill initiative. Industrial education is a good thing 
in its tendency toward efficiency, but it would prove 
to be a bad thing if we came to feel that its effi- 
ciency is the only kind that the human being is 
capable of attaining. Before you can properly set 
up the contented man as a model, so far as char- 
acter is concerned, you must inquire into the con- 
ditions of his contentment. A certain amount of 
dissatisfaction is frequently preferable to the con- 
tentment which rests in less than reasonable achieve- 
ment. The danger of a special course for very young 



274 EDUCATION AS GROWTH 

people is that it leads to a degree of skill which may 
secure employment before sufficient intelligence and 
morality have been attained to serve as ballast for 
character. It is a personal tragedy when a young 
person is led into a present small success in such a 
way as to make him satisfied with it when larger 
success is easily within his reach. Here, then, is the 
danger of all aims of education which do not include 
the highest and best possible for each under the cir- 
cumstances. It is in this sense that I have tried 
in these pages to explain, illustrate, and enforce the 
highest possible aim in education, — human perfec- 
tion, the highest attainable excellence ; that is, the 
highest attainable excellence for each under the 
circumstances. This does not mean an impossibility ; 
it only means all that is possible. It also means that 
when one has attained any particular degree of ex- 
cellence, he is to believe that there is something 
else better still, which he may attain when his cir- 
cumstances have so changed that it becomes pos- 
sible for him. This state of mind is not one of 
restlessness nor of fretful discontent, but rather of 
joy in what has already been attained, and a belief 
in the life that is better still. The present life, seen 
as the basis of a still better life, is a source of genuine 
satisfaction. The life that is to be, when circum- 
stances make it possible, is always sending a stream of 
the " light that never was on sea or land " backward 



SELF-REALIZATION 275 

on the present life, rendering it glorious as a par- 
tial success that is a sure harbinger of the greater 
success just ahead. 

A life so modified cannot be an unhappy life. It 
is full of happiness on its own account and full of 
hope for the future. It remains to say that efficiency 
is far from being necessarily a narrow or selfish aim. 
True efficiency is measured by altruistic standards, 
and the most lowly service given in love is a char- 
acter-forming force. Many persons, therefore, who 
are but meagerly educated, in the technical sense 
of the word, carry forward their character culture be- 
cause their expert service in humble fields is done 
for the sake of the dear ones at home, or for others 
whose welfare they have at heart. But such persons 
are doubly blessed if, with this expertness, they have 
been made intelligent and moral, so that a swifter 
progress is possible, and so that higher and nobler 
work will come to them as they advance in life. The 
ever-receding ideal of perfection lures them on, culti- 
vating in them a " divine discontent " with the pres- 
ent, only in the sense, however, that it shows them 
an ever better and better possible future. 



ANNOUNCEMENTS 



THE JONES READERS 

By L. H. JONES 

President of the Michigan State Normal College, Ypsilanti 



THE REGULAR EDITION 

FIRST READER $0.30 

SECOND READER * 35 

THIRD READER 45 

FOURTH READER 65 

FIFTH READER 75 

THE JONES READERS BY GRADES 

A rearrangement of the regular edition in a series of eight books corresponding to the 
grades below high school, with additional matter in Books IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII 

BOOK I $0.30 

BOOK II 35 

BOOK III 45 

BOOK IV 45 

BOOK V 45 

BOOK VI 45 

BOOK VII 45 

BOOK VIII 50 



THE Jones Readers are unrivaled in the amount and in the 
quality of reading material. 

They contain the most effective and, at the same time, the 
most unobtrusive ethical teaching. 

They are most practical and teachable because of their care- 
ful grading and their explanatory and biographical notes. 

They demonstrate the wide experience and authoritative rank 
of the author. 

They are unexcelled in illustrations and in mechanical ex- 
ecution. 



GINN AND COMPANY Publishers 



ASPECTS OF CHILD LIFE AND 
EDUCATION 

By G. STANLEY HALL, President of Clark University and Professor of 
Psychology, and Some of His Pupils 



i2mo. Cloth. 3z6 pages 



TOURING the last twenty years one of the lines 
^-^ of research carried on by President G. Stanley 
Hall and students working under his direction, at 
Clark University, has been the psychology of child- 
hood and its applications to education. These 
researches have been published in the University 
periodicals, which are of necessity expensive and 
limited in circulation, and have not, therefore, 
hitherto been available to the general public. The 
object of the present volume, which is to be the 
first of a series, is to make accessible to parents 
and teachers, in somewhat condensed form and 
at moderate price, the results of these researches 
which are now recognized as of fundamental 
importance in all educational work. 

GINN & COMPANY Publishers 



30 Idtl 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



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